Since launching its invasion of Ukraine in February, the Kremlin has been using the rhetoric of "denazification [10]" to justify its war of aggression. It now appears to be updating its nomenclature. Aleksey Pavlov, assistant secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, told state news agency RIA Novosti [11] Oct. 25 that Ukraine has become a "totalitarian hypersect" where citizens have abandoned Orthodox Christian values. He added that the "desatanization" of Ukraine should be a goal of the "special military operation." Pavlov also favorably quoted Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov [14] as calling for the "complete de-shaitanization" of Ukraine. (Pravda [15])
Jews in Ukraine and Russia alike are aghast that Pavlov named the Chabad-Lubavitch [12] Hasidic group as one of the "hundreds of sects" that need to be purged from Ukraine, calling it a "supremacist cult."
The Chabad-Lubavitch movement began [16] in the Russian Empire in the late 18th century, and the big majority of Jews in present-day Russia are members. The chief rabbi of Russia, Berel Lazar (once a close confidant of Vladimir Putin), condemned Pavlov's comments as "nonsensical, vulgar, and...anti-Semitic." He added: "This is a new variety of the old blood libels. And if they are being uttered by a member of the Russian Security Council, this represents a great danger." (TJC [17])
This certainly ups the irony level in the Kremlin's propaganda stratagem of fascist pseudo-anti-fascism [18].
Interestingly, amid all the openly genocidal [19] rhetoric from Russian officialdom and state media, one commentator apparently transgressed some ill-defined limit and got himself suspended from propaganda outlet [20] RT. Anton Krasovsky called for the burning and drowning of Ukrainian children, and joked about Russian soldiers raping Ukrainian grandmothers. (BBC News [21]) Meanwhile, Russian media mouthpieces continue to spew verbiage hardly less horrific [22] than this.
