In July, Uzbekistan-born, Russian-speaking Israeli writer Dina Rubina gave an interview to the Russian opposition channel Rain TV, which caused a stir in the Russophone world. During the hour-and-a-half programme, she declared that there are no “peaceful residents” in Gaza, Israel has the right to “cleanse Gaza and turn it into a parking lot”, and that Palestinians need to be “dissolved in hydrochloric acid”.
This incident is not an aberration. Many in the Russian liberal opposition, which now operates mostly in exile, unquestioningly support Israel. This is not only due to their tendency to disregard institutionalised racism in Russia but also due to their embrace of a civilisational hierarchy narrative that places the white West at the top. Anti-Palestinian bias is a natural outcome of this worldview.
Examples of the Russian opposition’s virulent anti-Palestinianism abound. Yuliya Latynina, a star columnist living in exile, has made parallels between “barbarians” destroying “blossoming civilisations” and the Palestinians and called students protesting against the genocide in Gaza “lazy and stupid”.
Another self-exiled liberal commentator, Leonid Gozman, has claimed that European countries that voted at the United Nations in favour of a “pro-Hamas” resolution calling for a truce in Gaza did so because they were “afraid of their immigrant communities”.
Andrei Pivovarov, former director of Open Russia, a now-defunct pro-democracy organisation, has said he finds Israel’s actions in Gaza “justified”. He was imprisoned in Russia until he was released last year in a prisoner exchange with the West.
Russian opposition politician, Dmitri Gudkov, currently residing in Bulgaria, has declared: “For me, Israel is the embodiment of civilisation. Anything against it is barbarism.”
Kseniya Larina, a renowned Russian journalist and radio host, also currently in exile, has hosted on her show Israeli Russian-speaking intellectuals multiple times. In one instance, a talk with an Israeli educator was titled, “Recognition of Palestine is not antisemitism, it’s idiocy”.
These are just a few examples of the many Russian liberal emigres who openly supported Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. In addition, Russian pop icons, comedians, musicians, and TV personalities who are based in Israel or visit also constantly broadcast the Israeli narrative.
The paradox here is that the Russian liberal opposition maintains that it is the democratic, moral alternative to President Vladimir Putin’s authoritarianism while openly expressing racist views against the Palestinians. It largely condemns Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Russian war crimes, but denies the Israeli ones.
In the West, the self-declared democratic values of the Russian opposition are rarely scrutinised. But they should be, because it is not just in relation to Palestine that its racist views are apparent.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/11/15/why-russias-liberal-opposition-is-so-anti-palestinian
Posted by BendicantMias
7 comments
Cool hit peace from Al Jazeera. Now explain why both Taiwan and Ukraine also are pro Israel?
Could it be because both Russia and China are using Palestinian suffering to divert attention from their own crimes and to drive anti Democratic sentiment?
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>also due to their embrace of a civilisational hierarchy narrative that places the white West at the top. Anti-Palestinian bias is a natural outcome of this worldview.
Yeah that’s also pretty much the reason why many Ukrainians and European liberals/right wingers support Israel as well.
Funny because the Russian oppositionists themselves are usually also put in the uncivilized group by these people despite opposing Putin.
Probably geopolitics? Sometimes people over think this stuff and forget the immense role tribalism and incentives plays in geopolitical alignment.
I’ll make groupthink geopolitics simple for you, by supporting one group, it often implies the support of that groups own allegiances and allies. So by supporting Palestine, you also then defacto support Iran, which is one of the biggest allies of Putin, so it is unlikely this group would support Palestine.
Itso facto, they support Israel, because that implies support of the West and the US. In a complex way, support of the Palestinian political apparatus, does align your interests with Iran, likewise with Israel. But people confuse support of people and support for States all the time.
For most of human history aligning yourself with States who do not directly benefit your State would be foolish and pointless, possibly civilization ending. However in a world of resource excess we have gained the privilege of morality with these sort of things.
Tribalism is still dumb though. I see so many people now viewing Iran as the “good guy” in all this. Even people defending the authoritarian rule of Hamas in Gaza. People have such a hard time grasping the lack of a “good actor” in these sort of world events. They want so desperately to have someone fighting for the obviously moral and correct path (whatever that is), without understanding the very nature of State geopolitics littering every conflict with their own interests. And these States taking on those responsibilities for that support.
No State does something for nothing, remember that. Iran does not support Palestine for Palestinians. The US (despite some politicians), does not support Israel simply because they’re Israeli. Only people are capable of morals, States are apparatuses that try to gain benefits and resources for the group that they represent.
Well, not all of them, but yeah, I’m astonished by their hypocrisy and all those people who have Israel and Ukraine flags in their nicknames on Twitter. But western leaders somehow act the same way and this is why Israel is still not under sanctions
I’m glad that an article like that has been made. If you go on youtube, it is incredibly hard to find Russians who are pro-Ukraine, but are also against Israel’s war against Palestine. If you really wanna get an illustration of how bad Russian and Ukrainian zionism can get, r/tjournal_refugees is a good example (use an auto-translator)
Something I’m not seeing brought up is that there are a huge amount of Russians(as well as those from the former USSR) in Israel, a lot of people in Russia have friends or family living there. 20% of Israelis speak Russian and 15% of Israelis speak it as their first language putting it almost on par with Arabic.
In fact, more Israeli prime ministers were born in the Russian empire than in any other place.
I can only imagine that plays a big role.
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