Jewish groups and lawmakers have pounced on Russian President Vladimir Putin's suggestion that the 2016 presidential election may have been manipulated by Russian Jews.
The alarming remark came during an interview with NBC News' Megyn Kelly's broadcast Saturday, when he speculated nearly anyone other than the Russian government could've been behind an effort to disrupt the election.
On Sunday, CIA director Mike Pompeo dismissed the notion, declaring the Kremlin was behind the attack.
"Maybe they're not even Russians," Putin told Kelly. "Maybe they're Ukrainian, Tatars, Jews — just with Russian citizenship."
He also speculated that France, Germany or "Asia" might have interfered in the election — or even Russians paid by the U.S. government.
He also claimed the United States interferes in Russian elections "all the time" but that it was "impossible for us" to do the same.
"First, we have principles whereby we do not allow others to interfere in our domestic affairs and do not get into the affairs of others … Secondly, we don't have this quantity of tools," he said.
It was the slander aimed at Jews that prompted immediate outrage, The Washington Post reported.
"Repulsive Putin remark deserves to be denounced, soundly and promptly, by world leaders," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., tweeted.
"Why is Trump silent?" Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., asked, Haaretz reported.
"President Putin bizarrely has resorted to the blame game by pointing the finger at Jews and other minorities in his country," Anti-Defamation League Chief Executive Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement.
"It is deeply disturbing to see the Russian president giving new life to classic anti-Semitic stereotypes that have plagued his country for hundreds of years, with a comment that sounds as if it was ripped from the pages of the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion.' "
The American Jewish Committee also called out Putin's comments as comparable to the "Elders of Zion."
The Post explained the fabricated document was published in Russia in 1903, and claimed Jews were plotting to take over the world, fueled violence against Jews across Europe — and even influenced Adolf Hitler's Holocaust plans.
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