From Catherine the Great to Putin: how the anti-Semitism of Russian leaders was born (and changed)

LONDRA – The anti-Semitism of which Israel immediately accused the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for his statement to the Italian television network Rete 4, “Hitler too had Jewish blood” was a constant stain in the history of Russia. From the empire of the Tsars to the Communist Soviet Union, ending with Putin’s nationalist Russia, Jews have been persecuted, discriminated against and looked upon with suspicion in the largest country in the world.