(Jewish Group) The anti-Zelensky coalition brings together a kaleidoscope of ideologies

With the Kremlin now seemingly guilty of war crimes after the reports of civilian killings in Bucha, radical ideologues of different complexions continue to band against Ukraine’s defiant and courageous president Volodymyr Zelensky.

This anti-Zelensky coalition is brought together by a myriad of factors – one being his Jewish identity. Antisemitism is the “one ring of racism” that brings together hard-left, hard-right and Islamist ideologues – and that dynamic has again come to the surface during the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has denounced Zelensky as “disgusting, corrupt and faithless”. Sharing conspiratorial beliefs over Jews having a disproportionately high level of influence in international politics, antisemites of various ideological shades have instinctively sided with the Kremlin over its military invasion of a neighbouring, sovereign nation-state led by a Jewish politician. Indeed, the Kremlin’s campaign to “de-Nazify” Ukraine has been welcomed with open arms by anti-Jewish ideologues.

The cross-ideological anti-Zelensky coalition is also defined by its anti-West and anti-democracy characteristics. Zelensky has expressed his desire to lead Ukraine’s integration into the western world’s political and security architecture – primarily through European Union (EU) accession. Looking to free Ukraine from the Kremlin’s gravitational pull, in favour of integrating his country into post-Cold War western political-security order, Zelensky has antagonised the hard-left, hard-right and Islamist ideologues who side with foreign regimes that challenge western alliances.

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