Is Vladimir Putin Jewish?
Sami Kleib in the Hezbollah-linked newspaper ‘As-Safir’ has alleged that the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin is jewish or has jewish ancestry. (1) It turns out the article is largely sourced from English language claims on the internet about Putin. (2)
The claims are largely based around his conduct and his alleged interest in jewish ritual and his association with Rabbi Berel Lazar. He is among other things a member of the Lubavitcher Chabad and Russia’s Chief Rabbi. (3)
Lazar has argued, among other things that Putin has sought to ‘combat anti-Semitism' (4) but I think it is reasonable to assert that Putin isn’t really interested in combating it merely appearing to. Given that despite claims he was been ‘cracking down’; he has only really targeted the more extreme elements. (5) This has also been demonstrated by, among other things, Russian ultra-nationalists being in evidence in significant numbers in Euro 2016. (6)
Besides even that cracking down on ultra-nationalists does not make Putin jewish, but rather suggests the opposite. Putin has been in power since at least 1999 (7) and as such has presided over the phenomenal growth of radical ultra-nationalist and anti-jewish groups. It has only been since 2015 that he has cracked down somewhat on the more extreme organisations within Russia’s borders. (8)
Therefore we can reasonably say that despite claims otherwise Putin has not sought to combat ultra-nationalists and ‘anti-Semites’ until relatively recently in his twenty-four year stint as the strongman of Russia.
That’s not to say that Putin is an ultra-nationalist or anti-Semite himself, but rather that he doesn’t have any major antipathy towards unlike homosexuals who he has cracked down on hard. (9) Although that being said he has denied being a ‘homophobe’ and is ‘for gay rights’. (10)
Thus we can say Putin’s alleged anti-anti-Semitism appears to be largely a non-entity; although labelling him as an anti-Semite wouldn’t be true either. Personally I would label him as something like a practical Russian nationalist with either a sincere belief in Orthodox Christianity or a pro-Christian ideological stance. (11)
This nicely leads us into the claim that Putin is jewish because he has sought closer ties with Israel. While this is certainly to be regretted; it isn’t that extraordinary and is hardly evidence of any exceptional ties to the jewish people.
Putin’s foreign policy has been marked by a distinct and healthy brand of ‘Russia First’ diplomacy and activity, which has seen him ally with Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, threaten the Baltic Statics, invade Ukraine and so on.
Russia having working ties with Israel simply means that Putin and his advisers believe that closer ties with Israel are currently to Russia’s net benefit. It does not mean, and is not evidence for the claim, that Putin is himself jewish.
Therefore we can see that so far the evidence for Putin being jewish is pretty much non-existent.
The best piece of evidence alluded to is the claim that Putin’s grandparents were jewish.
The previously linked article on ‘Debate Politics’ claims that:
‘In the first addition of Putins book: First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia’s President it says his mothers maiden name was Shalomovitch – which apparently is a Jewish surname. Yet in the second addition, it conveniently changes to Shelomova. A cover up??’ (12)
This is quite frankly made-up twaddle.
There is only one edition of Putin’s biography ‘First Person’ that I can find listed in the official bibliographic data and it doesn’t list his mother’s surname as ‘Shalomovitch’ but rather as Shelomova. (13)
The entire idea that Putin would allow his authorised biography to include a reference to his ‘jewish mother’s’ maiden name being ‘Shalomovitch’ only to correct it in a superseded unlisted edition is simply absurd. It relies on the idea that Putin and/or his staff wouldn’t have checked the proofs of the biography minutely at least once before publication, which is just ludicrous.
It is up to those who claim this was the case to provide photographic evidence of such; since as it stands the claim does not stand up to any kind of independent verification.
That being said Putin does admit that he (I paraphrase) ‘doesn’t know much about his mother’s side of the family’.
This isn’t evidence in the slightest that Putin is jewish, but rather that he probably doesn’t know very much about his mother’s side of the family.
This is given credence in the fact that Putin’s maternal family originates from the village of Pominovo in the rural Tver region to the north-west of Moscow. (14)
The fact of the matter is that they were likely peasants/serfs of whom there is simply little documentary record like so much in Russian history. It simply doesn’t mean they were jewish or converts from Judaism in any way, shape or form.
The idea that Putin’s father Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin was jewish is even more ludicrous Since he is charged with being a jew based upon the fact that his grandfather was a professional cook. Apparently he was a good one as he was chosen to cook for Lenin and then Stalin successively,
but that doesn’t make him any more jewish than Nikolai Bukharin. (15)
The entire charge that Putin’s grandfather was a ‘Bolshevik jew’ rests upon no evidence what-so-ever as far as I can see. For heaven’s sake: he was a cook not a commissar.
Thus Putin’s father isn’t likely to have been jewish.
We can then note that there is no actual evidence that Putin’s father and mother were jewish or had any jewish ancestry.
Therefore Putin is, as far as the evidence suggests, not jewish.
It is really that simple.
References
(1) http://assafir.com/Article/1/506026; summarized in https://www.algemeiner.com/2016/08/11/heres-a-first-hezbollah-paper-says-putin-is-jewish/
(2) Specifically http://www.debatepolitics.com/blogs/comments/comment3321.html
(3) http://www.ozy.com/provocateurs/putins-favorite-rabbi/64641; http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/309514/russian-chief-rabbi-berel-lazar-stands-by-vladimir-putin/
(4) Ibid.
(5) http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/09/russia-ultra-nationalist-crackdown-150916131749975.html
(6) http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/euro-2016-france-deports-29-russia-fans-who-were-on-bus-to-lille-a7081386.html
(7) http://premier.gov.ru/eng/premier/biography.html
(8) http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/09/russia-ultra-nationalist-crackdown-150916131749975.html
(9) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/vladimir-putin-anti-gay-laws/; https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/01/14/dispatches-jail-time-being-gay-russia; https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/14/vladimir-putin-gives-state-honour-to-anti-gay-politician
(10) http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/09/28/putin-condemns-homophobia-supports-lgbt-rights/; http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/26725/1/putin-definitely-not-homophobic-supports-lgbt-rights
(11) Cf. http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2012/04/russians-in-russia-the-state-within-the-state/
(12) http://www.debatepolitics.com/blogs/comments/comment3321.html; also https://diehoffnaerrin.wordpress.com/2015/09/26/jewish-roots-of-russian-president-vladimir-putin/
(13) Nataliya Gevorkyan, Andrei Kolesnikov, Vladimir Putin, Natalya Timakova, 2000, ‘First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait’, 1st Edition, Public Affairs: New York, p. 3
(14) Ibid, p. 4
(15) Ibid., p.3; also http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/490410/Is-Vladimir-Putin-mad-or-just-bad