Iranian media uses old Stalin-era Soviet antisemitic language to incite Russians against Jews

Iran's Mehr News has a panicky article about how Zionists - and Jews - have infiltrated Russia.

 These days, mainstream media mentions very little about the proliferation of Zionism in the Russian Federation. And when there is any mention what is mainly referred to is the presence of Chabad movement and perhaps a strong lobby of Zionism in Kremlin.

However, in reality, the situation is much more severe. To begin with, we should have a closer look at how Zionist business is quite firmly settled in the Russian outback. Representatives of Israeli business are operating in major Russian cities such as Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Surgut and so on. However, in this piece, I would like to single out the Republic of Bashkortostan and its capital Ufa. Why chose this particular region? The major significance here plays the presence of "the central Muftiat of the Russian Federation". It would seem that Muslims must resist the cooperation with the main enemies of the Ummah and all freedom-loving people, but in our strange world, not everything is as it meant to be. In fact, special relationships between Ufa Muftiat and Zionism are not something new.

This is garden variety Islamic antisemitism, calling Jews the "enemies of the Ummah." But the target audience here is not only the Muslims who make up some 38% of Bashkortostan's citizens, but also the ethnic Russians.

The Soviet style dog-whistle comes out next:

Zionism is present in Ufa in several ways, for the most part reflecting the traditional foreign policy of cosmopolitan radicals.

"Cosmopolitan radicals?"

Later on the language becomes more explicit:

Zionism has launched tentacles in many areas, from the power grid complex to the rural farms. It is not enough that all of Moscow and St. Petersburg are at the complete disposal of the rootless cosmopolitans, they are now active throughout northern Eurasia and especially its central part. 

"Rootless cosmopolitans" was a code word for Jews in Stalin's time.

The reference to "tentacles" is also not coincidence. Jews depicted as spiders and octopi were recurring motifs in antisemitic Soviet cartoons.

The article touches on other antisemitic conspiracy theories, such as asking why the rabbi of Bashkiria is not a local Jew - as if the local Jews have major yeshivas that can ordain rabbis.

The article ends off by appealing to traditional Russian patriotism, which has also tended towards the antisemitic:

We also see that there is no real patriotism among the rather large Russian-speaking population, we see no protests and let alone the fight against the dominance of the Zionist business in the Republic.

Of course, nothing gets published in Mehr News that the Iranian leadership does not approve. This article shows that antisemitism is a mainstay in Iranian media, if often hidden behind dog whistles and code words.

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