'They’re tearing the church apart': Putin targets Russia's 'godless' Jews at media conference

Vladimir Putin accused Jews of attacking the Russian Orthodox Church and suggested that they lacked family and “roots,” the latest antisemitic statement from the Russian leader since his 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Putin made the allegation during his lengthy annual press conference ahead of the New Year, which lasted four hours on Thursday. In the middle of of the event, Putin addressed punitive actions against the Russian Orthodox Church elsewhere in Europe. The church is considered to be closely tied to Putin’s regime, and its leaders have been expelled from countries such as Bulgaria and Estonia.

Putin said the church was “being tortured” — and blamed Jews.

“They’re tearing the church apart but they’re not even atheists,” Putin said. “These are people without any beliefs, godless people, they’re ethnic Jews, but has anyone seen them in a synagogue? I don’t think so.”

After adding that the alleged opponents of the church were also neither Orthodox Christian nor Muslim, he added, “These are people without kin or memory, with no roots. They don’t cherish what we cherish and the majority of the Ukrainian people cherish as well.”

Critics of Putin decried the statement as antisemitic, noting parallels to Soviet state antisemitism under Josef Stalin, when the Kremlin persecuted Jews and accused them of being “rootless cosmopolitans.”

The Ukraine invasion

Putin said in the same press conference that Moscow should have invaded Ukraine sooner.

"Such a decision, which was made at the beginning of 2022, should have been made earlier," Putin said.

"The events in Crimea were spontaneous, and the events of 2022 were also started without any special preparation. Why did we start? Because it was no longer possible to stand still and endure, waiting for the situation to worsen for us," TASS quoted Putin as saying. 

"They forced us into these actions. If we had known in advance what would happen, of course, it would have been necessary to conduct thorough, systematic preparation."

Putin covered a wide variety of topics during the four-hour-long press conference, including relations with Syria and Israel's involvement. 

The Kremlin chief claimed that "the main beneficiary of the events taking place in Syria is, in my opinion, Israel," as reported by TASS.

Heightening tensions

His statements come in the midst of racketing military tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

The Russian president challenged Ukraine and the West to a "high-tech duel" at the conference, claiming that if the West had any doubts about Russia's Oreshnik hypersonic missile, they could pick an area in Kyiv to concentrate defense forces around and then attempt to intercept the missile.

"We are ready for such an experiment," Putin stated.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Putin's threats were reckless.

People are dying, and he thinks it’s “interesting”... Dumbass. pic.twitter.com/JyJ9ok0fok

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 19, 2024

"People are dying, and he thinks it’s 'interesting.' Dumb*ss," he wrote in a post on X/Twitter.

On Thursday, Russia carried out a massive cyber attack on Ukraine's state registries, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanishyna said. 

"Today, the largest external cyber attack in recent times occurred with Ukraine's state registries," Stefanishyna wrote on Facebook. "As a result of this targeted attack, the work of the unified and state registries, which are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, was temporarily suspended."

Stefanishyna said it was clear the attack was "carried out by the Russians to disrupt the work of the country's critically important infrastructure" and that all targeted infrastructure would be restored in two weeks, Stefanishyna said. 

The attack came after Kyiv claimed responsibility for the killing of Russian Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the commander of the Russian army's chemical, radiological and biological weapons unit, on Tuesday.

Recently, British Defense Minister John Healey discussed sending British military instructors to Ukraine, according to BBC sources in the British Defense Ministry. However, Healey said that all plans would have to stay " let's say, unavailable to President Putin." 

Ceasefire near?

While Ukrainian military officials have been trained in the UK since the war's onset, Britain has not sent soldiers to assist Kyiv out of fear of direct confrontation with Russia and of potentially broadening the war.

There have been greater reports on ceasefire efforts between the two nations. Previously, US President-elect Donald Trump claimed that he could end the conflict in a matter of hours. Experts believe that this could not happen without an effective freeze to the conflict, meaning Kyiv could lose large amounts of territory.

“We cannot live with a frozen conflict," Zelensky said at a meeting of the European Council in Brussels on Thursday. "When it comes to ceasefire, people know what comes after, how everything will end. You have to know what tomorrow brings in order to have a ceasefire.”

In contrast, TASS reported that the Kremlin Chief said he would speak with Trump regarding a deal.

"I am ready for it [a conversation with US President-elect Donald Trump] at any time, of course. And I will also be ready for a meeting if he wants it."

"We don’t need a ceasefire; we need peace – long-term, durable, and guaranteed for the Russian Federation and its citizens. This is a complex issue – how to ensure these guarantees. But overall, it’s something we can explore," he said, according to TASS.

Zelensky emphasized that he believed that Putin was expressing interest in order to rearm and attack Ukraine more aggressively. 

“We need coordinated work for a lasting peace, not just the suspension of hostilities that Putin seeks in order to buy time."

According to the Kyiv Independent, the EU does not anticipate such talks happening any time in the future.