Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty
President Vladimir Putin was the rarest of things: a Russian strongman who was proud to boast of his positive relationship with the Jewish community after centuries of pogroms and antisemitism which blighted both imperial Russia and the Soviet Union.
Putin was, in 2005, the first Russian leader to visit Israel, where he staged an emotional reunion with a former high school teacher. He elevated his Jewish childhood friends Arkady and Boris Rotenberg to the heights of oligarchic power and was careful to rein in allies who used antisemitic tropes.
That reputation was destroyed on the global stage last weekend when riotous antisemitic gangs roamed through Russian cities looking for Jews to attack while the Kremlin—which rarely turns a blind eye to any form of street protest or dissent—remained resolutely silent.