Germany denounces Lavrov’s comments on Hitler and Zelenskiy as ‘absurd’

BERLIN (Reuters) -Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s comments to Italian television in which he suggested Adolf Hitler had Jewish origins are “absurd” propaganda, a German government spokesperson said on Monday.

During an interview with Rete 4 channel on Sunday, Lavrov was asked how Russia could say it needed to “denazify” Ukraine, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was Jewish.

“I think that Hitler also had Jewish origins, so it means nothing,” Lavrov said via an interpreter, in comments that drew a sharp protest from Israel. [L5N2WU1A3]

The German government’s anti-Semitism commissioner also decried the Russian foreign minister’s remarks.

In comments to the Funke group of newspapers, Felix Klein said Lavrov’s remarks “mock the victims of National Socialism in an unacceptable manner and shamelessly confront not only Jews but the entire international public with open anti-Semitism.

“Lavrov is cynically twisting victims and perpetrators of past and present.”

(Reporting by Rachel MoreEditing by Paul Carrel, William Maclean)