Editing Sergey Lavrov (section)

== Foreign Ministership ==
On 9 March 2004, President Vladimir Putin appointed Lavrov to the post of Minister for Foreign Affairs. He succeeded Igor Ivanov in the post.

Lavrov is regarded as continuing the style of his predecessor: a brilliant diplomat but a civil servant rather than a politician, Russia's foreign policy being largely determined by the President of the Russian Federation. A Russian foreign policy expert at London's Chatham House, has described him as "a tough, reliable, extremely sophisticated negotiator", but adds that "he's not part of Putin's inner sanctum" and that the toughening of Russian foreign policy has got very little to do with him.

On May 1, when asked about the appropriateness of "denazification" of Ukraine, where the president is an ethnic Jew, Volodymyr Zelensky said: "I could be wrong, but [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] also had Jewish blood. It means absolutely nothing. The wise Jewish people say that the most radical anti-Semites are usually Jews. "The family is not without a monster," as we say. This statement provoked a reaction from the Israeli Foreign Ministry, where the Russian ambassador was summoned for a conversation explanatory.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called Lavrov's words "inexcusable, outrageous and a grave historical mistake." The Russian foreign minister's words were condemned by other Israeli politicians and public organizations, including Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial chairman Dani Dayan. He said that Lavrov had turned "victims into criminals by presenting a completely false claim that Hitler was of Jewish origin." Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Monday called Lavrov's words a "lie" that is designed to hold them responsible for the extermination of Jews during World War II. Bennett also called for an immediate end to the use of references to the Holocaust for political purposes. On May 3, the Russian Foreign Ministry responded to Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid's statement that the Jews did not destroy themselves during the Holocaust. The ministry believes that they are ahistorical (two cases of cooperation of Jews with the Nazis during World War II are mentioned), the Jewish origin of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not a guarantee against the spread of neo-Nazism in this country, and on the way accused the president of Latvia, who also has Jewish roots, Egils Levits, of neo-Nazism. On May 4, Russia's Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar called on the minister to publicly apologize for saying that "Jews are the most violent anti-Semites." On May 5, the Israeli Prime Minister's press service reported Vladimir Putin's apology for Lavrov's words, and in a Russian press release they ignored the timing of Putin's apology.
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