When asked how Russia can claim that it is fighting to “de-Nazify” Ukraine when President Volodymyr Zelensky is himself Jewish, Mr Lavrov said: “I could be wrong, but Hitler also had Jewish blood. [That Zelensky is Jewish] means absolutely nothing. Wise Jewish people say that the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews.”
Israel had demanded an apology, with Mr Bennett saying shortly after that “such lies are meant to blame the Jews themselves for the most terrible crimes in history and thus free the oppressors of the Jews from their responsibility”.
In Thursday’s statement, Mr Bennett’s office said that he had accepted Mr Putin’s apology and “thanked him for clarifying his attitude towards the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust”.
Russia said the two discussed the Holocaust, but did not say Mr Putin apologised.
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