EXTREMISMAnti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories “Explain” Russian Assault on Ukraine

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, extremists and anti-Semites across the ideological spectrum have used the war as fodder for promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Emanating from classic anti-Semites and racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs), as well as QAnon influencers and Proud Boys acolytes, classic tropes of Jewish power, financial control and “abuse” of the Holocaust narrative abound online. In just a few short weeks, tens of thousands of social media users have been exposed to these dangerous lies.

Some allege that the war itself is orchestrated by Jews for both financial control and global prowess. Others refer to the “Khazarian Mafia” or the “Khazarian invasion” to justify and even celebrate Russia’s invasion. This conspiracy alludes to the belief that modern Eastern European Jewry descended from a people known as the Khazars, who allegedly converted to Judaism in the eighth century and lived in present-day Ukraine. Believers claim Putin’s incursion into Ukraine was a means to help the country counter/dispel an invasion of “Khazar Jews.”

Anti-Zionist activists have also engaged in conspiratorial rhetoric, alleging Israel and Zionists are intentionally capitalizing on this crisis to fuel their own goals.

Key Anti-Semites Weigh In
Brother Nathanael
“Street Evangelist” and anti-Semitic provocateur Brother Nathanael went on an anti-Semitic rant invoking the age-old Blood Libel conspiracy, which claims that Jews murder non-Jews and use their blood in religious rituals. In a video titled “Bloody Passover in Ukraine,” which has been viewed more than 22,000 times, Brother Nathanael states that the war in Ukraine is based on Jews’ “lust for murder and blood,” and “the blood of Ukrainian, American and European NATO soldiers” would have “curative power for Jewry” that “puts the Jews on top.” Later in the video, Brother Nathanael names Jews who work in the Biden Administration to claim that the “Jewish blood ritual is the center of U.S. foreign policy” for “Jew-led America,” and that the war is being fought because “only the dried blood of Orthodox Christian Russian soldiers will nourish the blood cult of yet another bloody Passover.”

Another video on Brother Nathanael’s BitChute channel, with more than 22,000 views, links the war in Ukraine to the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory of Jewish financial control, referring to the U.S. efforts to sanction’ Russia as the work of “the Rothschild U.S. Jewish Fed [sic],” and claiming that “Ukraine is just a pawn in the Jewish game” to strike against Russia.