July 21, 2025

Medvedev Compares Ukraine to Nazi Germany


Medvedev Compares Ukraine to Nazi Germany
Dmitri Medvedev The Russian Life files

On July 17, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev compared Ukraine to Nazi Germany. The propagandist Russian news outlet Russia Today reported Medvedev’s words, quoting his assessment of an “obvious similarity” between Kiev and the declining Third Reich.

This is the latest reiteration of a years-old piece of Russian rhetoric. Putin himself has on many occasions invoked an imagined Ukrainian Nazism in order to justify the war. Medvedev's comments neatly outline the propagandist strategy behind these claims.

In the Russia Today article, Medvedev followed his association of Ukraine with Nazi Germany with a plan Russia has for Ukraine's defeat: the “three Ds.” Medvedev’s mnemonically simplified outline is intended to appear innocent: his central words are “demilitarization,” “denazification,” and “democratization,” words weaponized by Putin in the past.

Painting Kiev in this light has the benefit of disguising Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine as the benevolent eradication of lingering Nazism. It also justifies the Kremlin's condemnation of the West, implying collusion with historical baddies through inaction. The article concludes with the sentence, “Russia has accused Western governments of deliberately ignoring continued neo-Nazi activity in Ukrainian ranks.”

The Russian government thus positioned supporting Ukraine as an act of Nazism in itself. Capitalizing on the memory of Russia’s struggle against Germany in World War II, Medvedev’s words continue a tradition by Russian officials of alleging fascism from all sides. By claiming a kind of underdog status in the face of a global threat, Russian leaders distort military aggression into an heroic defense.

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