Italian Think Tank Reveals Russia’s Use of Antisemitism as Weapon in Hybrid Warfare

A comprehensive research paper titled “Antisemitism and Russian Active Measures from the Tsars to Putin” has been presented by the Gino Germani Institute of Social Sciences and Strategic Studies, an Italian think tank based in Rome focused on countering disinformation.

Authored by researcher Massimiliano De Pasquale, the study traces the historical evolution of Russian antisemitism from the tsarist era through the Soviet period to the present day. It argues that antisemitism in Russia is not merely a historical artifact but an active component of contemporary hybrid warfare orchestrated by the Kremlin.

According to the report, Moscow systematically deploys cognitive warfare both domestically and internationally, using trolls, bots, and compliant media outlets to stoke antisemitic sentiment across Western democracies. This strategy targets both the political right, through white supremacist narratives, and the left, via radical anti-Zionism, with the ultimate goal of eroding social cohesion in liberal democracies.

The paper explains how Putin’s Russia, alongside other authoritarian states like China and Iran, constructs strategic narratives designed to distort reality in the minds of both citizens and policymakers in target countries. These narratives aim to shape public opinion and influence behavior while justifying Russia’s geopolitical ambitions.

Russian state media has long amplified conspiracy theories about historical events to create fertile ground for antisemitism. In 2016, Russian television channel REN TV aired a documentary claiming that a group of 300 Jews, Freemasons and “Illuminati” had orchestrated the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 to trigger a global crisis. The program also linked this alleged conspiracy to events such as the Chernobyl disaster and the September 11 attacks, drawing condemnation from Jewish organizations worldwide.

The COVID-19 pandemic provided another opportunity for Russian media to circulate antisemitic conspiracy theories. Publications linked to Aleksandr Dugin’s Geopolitika.ru advanced narratives claiming the virus was an American biological weapon developed by “Zionist neoconservatives.” Other Russian media outlets, including News Front, promoted stories implicating George Soros and the American “deep state” in the pandemic, while claiming U.S.-funded biolabs in Ukraine and Georgia were developing biological weapons.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 intensified these disinformation efforts. To justify the war, the Kremlin employed what the report describes as “mirror accusations” – projecting onto Ukraine the very crimes Russia was preparing to commit. Vladimir Putin declared Ukraine a “Nazi state” committing genocide against its own people, despite the fact that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish and was elected in 2019 with 73 percent of the vote.

When critics pointed to Zelensky’s Jewish identity, Moscow responded by disseminating narratives to delegitimize his heritage. In a shocking statement on Italian television in May 2022, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed that “even Hitler had Jewish origins” and that “the greatest anti-Semites are Jews themselves.” Such distortion of Holocaust history, promoted by Russian state propaganda, is itself considered a form of antisemitism.

The report identifies antisemitism as a core element of Russia’s radical Christian nationalist doctrine, also evident in the Russian Orthodox Church under Patriarch Kirill, who has repeatedly described the invasion of Ukraine as a holy war against a corrupt, “satanic” and “homosexual” West.

By late 2022, rising hostility toward Jews prompted Moscow’s Chief Rabbi, Pinchas Goldschmidt, now in exile, to urge Russian Jews to leave the country while they could. In a January 2023 interview, he warned that antisemitism had returned to Russia as the country moved “from authoritarian to more totalitarian.”

The Kremlin’s disinformation campaigns operate on dual tracks: simultaneously accusing Jews of orchestrating global events while depicting Ukrainians as antisemites. Russian media frequently fabricates incidents of antisemitism in Ukraine, which are then circulated by pro-Kremlin outlets. For example, a bogus report published in January 2020 claimed that Ukrainian hooligans had attacked Jews in Uman, a claim categorically denied by Ukraine’s National Police.

The Italian report concludes that the volume of falsehoods disseminated by the Russian propaganda machine is overwhelming, making fact-checking largely ineffective. This strategy exploits psychological vulnerabilities in mass audiences, including fascination with conspiracy theories, distrust of official communications, and entrenched political prejudices.

The research provides valuable evidence for understanding the mechanics of Russian information warfare and may assist Western governments in developing stronger defenses against disinformation campaigns designed to undermine democratic societies.