Russia summons Israeli envoy over Nazi collaborator comments

Russia’s foreign ministry summons Israel’s top envoy to Moscow for a dressing down as part of an ongoing spat over comments by Israel’s ambassador to Ukraine.

In a statement, the Russian foreign ministry says that it summoned Israeli chargé d’Affaires Ronen Kraus to issue a complaint about remarks made last week by Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine Michael Brodsky saying that he understood why many Ukrainians revere former Nazi accomplices as heroes for fighting against the Soviet Union.

The statement emphasizes that “whitewashing” of such figures is unacceptable and that Russia and Israel have worked together in the past to “rebuff attempts to rewrite history,” slamming those who praise Nazi collaborators in an attempt to “encourage Russophobic sentiments.”

Last week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Brodsky of “glorifying Nazism… If in Brodsky’s opinion Kyiv has the right to heroes like that, then it is a problem for the Israeli Foreign Ministry,” Zakharova added.

Asked for a comment on Tuesday’s meeting, Israel’s Foreign Ministry points to its statement from last week following Zakharova’s comments: “There is no change in Israel’s policy, which is absolutely opposed to and rejects the glorification of criminals who collaborated with the Nazis in murdering Jews,” ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said at the time. “No party should lecture the State of Israel, Israel’s Foreign Ministry, or its diplomats about the importance of preserving the memory of the Holocaust or about the war on historical distortion.”