ST. PETERSBURG, June 17. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) overall was met with great interest globally, including his words on historical Ukrainian antisemitism, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Saturday.
"Huge global interest in the president’s speech at the forum is apparent. It is apparent that what the president said is being analyzed, with a lot of important things deeply analyzed, naturally, voiced there. The story with historical Ukrainian antisemitism has apparently hit right in the feels, we also see and understand it. We see that it did not go unnoticed," he said.
Putin said during a discussion at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Friday, among other things, that Ukraine had pedestalized Hitler's followers as heroes. He also shared the attitude of his Jewish friends toward the current leader of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky: "I have many Jewish friends from my younger days. They tell me: Zelensky is not a Jew. He is a disgrace to the Jewish people."