Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett during their meeting in Sochi, Russia October 22, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Sputnik/Evgeny Biyatov

Israel said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had apologized to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett for the widely-panned comments of his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, about the Nazi Holocaust in the context of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

A statement from the Israeli Prime Minister’s office noted that the two leaders had “discussed Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov’s remarks” during a phone call.

“The Prime Minister accepted President Putin’s apology for Lavrov’s remarks and thanked him for clarifying his attitude towards the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust,” the statement said.

In an interview with Italian television last weekend, Lavrov repeated the Russian government’s insistence that Ukraine is governed by neo-Nazis, despite the fact that President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish. “How can there be Nazism in Ukraine if he is a Jew? I may be mistaken but Adolf Hitler had Jewish blood, too,” Lavrov claimed. “This means absolutely nothing. The wise Jewish people say that the most ardent antisemites are usually Jews.”

The comments generated a furor in Israel and internationally, with Bennett telling the Russian regime that the “use of the Holocaust of the Jewish people as a political tool must cease immediately,” and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid slamming Lavrov’s words as “unforgivable and outrageous.”

However, the Israeli statement on Thursday did not quote Putin’s apology directly, while a Kremlin readout of the phone call made no mention of an apology, rather stressing that Russia and Israel shared the same commitment to preserving the memory of the Holocaust. The Russian statement also highlighted the forthcoming “Victory Day” on Monday, which marks the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. Putin is widely expected to use May 9 as a propaganda opportunity, possibly by declaring victory in Ukraine.

“Vladimir Putin and Naftali Bennett emphasized the special significance of this date for the peoples of both countries, who carefully preserve the historical truth about the events of those years and honor the memory of all the fallen, including victims of the Holocaust,” the Russian statement said.

“The President of Russia recalled that out of the six million Jews tortured in ghettos and concentration camps, killed by the Nazis during punitive operations, 40 percent were citizens of the USSR, and asked to convey wishes of health and well-being to the veterans living in Israel,” the Russian statement added.

Putin reportedly congratulated Bennett on the occasion of Israel’s Independence Day, which fell on Thursday. “Mutual interest was expressed in the further development of friendly Russian-Israeli relations and the maintenance of useful contacts between the leadership of the two countries,” the statement continued.

Putin’s apparently conciliatory stance towards Israel comes at the end of a week in which Russian representatives have stepped up criticism of Jerusalem’s position towards Ukraine. On Wednesday, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Israel of sending mercenaries to fight “shoulder to shoulder” with right-wing extremist militia volunteers in Ukraine.