(Ottawa) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s “false, defamatory and offensive” remarks earned him condemnation from elected federal officials in Ottawa.
Posted at 4:22 p.m.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had already risen up the day before, and on Tuesday it was the turn of members of the House of Commons to express their dissatisfaction with the statements made by the head of Kremlin diplomacy.
Sunday evening, Sergei Lavrov wanted to discredit Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by drawing on a conspiracy theory treated with skepticism by historians, namely that of the alleged “Jewish blood” of the German genocidal dictator Adolf Hitler.
“Zelensky makes this argument: how can Nazism be present (in Ukraine) if he himself is a Jew. I could be wrong, but Hitler also had Jewish blood,” he said in an interview with Italian media.
The Minister also argued in the same interview that Canada and the United States, “especially the Canadians”, have “played a leading role in the formation of ultra-radical and openly neo-Nazi divisions in Ukraine”, according to an article by the Tass news agency, mouthpiece of the Putin regime.
MPs in Ottawa rebuffed him by unanimously consenting to the tabling of a motion by Liberal Anthony Housefather, who is of the Jewish faith.
“That the House emphasize that Canada is a welcoming country, open to the world, invested in the fight against anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination, and condemn the false, defamatory and offensive remarks of the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs”, says the motion in question.
Prime Minister Trudeau had already shot Minister Lavrov in flames on Monday.
“These comments are ridiculous and unacceptable. The fact that Russia is spreading misinformation and falsehoods has reached a point where we shouldn’t even be surprised anymore, but what the foreign minister said is staggering,” he dropped on the sidelines of an economic announcement in Ontario.
One of Moscow’s pretexts for invading Ukraine is its plan to “denazify” the country.