FJCR president: Outbreak of Russophobia in Europe over events in Ukraine unacceptable

MOSCOW. March 5 (Interfax) - Alexander Boroda, president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FJCR), has said he is outraged by manifestations of Russophobia in Europe amid the Russian military operation in Ukraine.

"There can be no justification or explanation for this, it's unacceptable at any level," Boroda said in an interview with Interfax.

He mentioned a restaurant owner in Germany who refused to serve Russians. The fact that the restaurateur was later rebuked on social media shows that such Russophobic manifestations are far from being mainstream, he said.

Boroda also mentioned an Internet clip showing a shop selling Russian goods in Germany, on which paint was thrown and whose windows were smashed. "I'd really like to believe that this is not true. Because it was precisely the Crystal Night, or the Night of Broken Glass, that preceded the long years of Nazi triumph," he said.

Boroda said not everything that appears on the Internet concerning military actions is true, a vivid example being the recent claim by Ukraine about a missile strike upon Babyn Yar in Kyiv, "which actually never happened."

"You shouldn't give up to informational hysteria. The pandemic played a dirty trick in this case. The people have gotten accustomed so much to living in a virtual world that they completely forget sometimes that an event is not just a Facebook post or a tweet, it should have factual confirmation, objective evidence," Boroda said.

He said he hoped journalists and bloggers would treat history with more respect and that numerous speculations on the Jewish subject will stop.