‘Maybe They’re Ukrainians, Tatars, Jews – Just With a Russian Citizenship’
Russian President Vladimir Putin sat down with NBC News’ Megan Kelly and delivered a startling, racist, and anti-Semitic response when asked about his country’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election. But he also did not deny Russian interference.
“If the 13 Russian nationals plus three Russian companies did interfere in our election is that okay with you?” Kelly asked in the interviewed that aired Friday night.
Putin smirked, looked away, then back at Kelly while holding in a laugh.
“I don’t care. I couldn’t care less,” he said, condescendingly. “Because they don’t represent – they do not represent the government. I could not are less – they do not represent the interest of the Russian State,” Putin told Kelly.
“Maybe they’re not even Russians,” he continued – accepting Kelly’s premise and not denying there was interference in the U.S. election. “Maybe they’re Ukrainians, Tatars, Jews – just with a Russian citizenship. That needs to be checked. Maybe they have dual citizenship. maybe a green card. Maybe it was the Americans who paid them for this work. How do you know? I don’t know.”
U.S. government intelligence agencies are in unanimous agreement that Russia interfered in America’s election. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of the 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies details that the Russian government spent millions of dollars annually, starting in 2013, with the specific intent of first disrupting Americans’ confidence in the election system, and later, to elect Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.Â
Putin just used Megan Kelly, nine days before his re-election (he cannot lose) to tell his own people Tatars and Jews living in Russia with Russian citizenship are not Russians. This is ethnic nationalism, and it is similar to how Trump sees America – where white Christians are the “real Americans,” and people of color, and immigrants are consistently treated as second-class, inferior, or the “other.”Â