Iranian news agency linked to Revolutionary Guard reportedly publishes antisemitic hit piece on Ukrainian President

Ukranian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy has been the target of an article by an Iranian pro-government media outlet that reportedly relies on antisemitic tropes. 

The long article, circulated by the Fars News Agency, uses what The Jerusalem Post calls a “word salad” of typical antisemitic notions. Mr Zelenskyy is accused of Jewish “immorality”, including hedonism, greed, corruption and malign political influence through the control of Ukrainian oligarchs, Donald Trump, and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who is described as “one of Zelensky’s most influential role models.”

Mr Zelenskyy is accused in the article of being not only a “hedonistic Jew” but an amoral “follower of the school of hedonism, which legitimises the attainment of pleasure in any way possible, and this school has spread to all aspects of his existence.”

The article also emphasises Mr Zelenskyy’s Jewish heritage and brands him a “Zionist”, an epithet of abuse in official Iranian outlets. Mr Zelenskyy is said to have “thanked the Zionist regime for its support of his country.”

Mr Zelenskyy’s is accused of having “deep ties to Jewish officials and the rich, such as George Soros.” Mr Soros is a Jewish financier who is often the target of antisemitic conspiracy theories.

From there, the Fars News Agency article makes a bizarre leap into the realms of conspiracy theory by connecting Zelensky and Ukraine’s need for financial and military aid not only to the former American president and George Soros’s Open Society Foundation, but to Jeffrey Epstein. The article describes how Epstein was “one of Zelensky’s most influential role models. The abuse of women and illicit sexual relations is a powerful tool in the hands of managers who try to achieve their goal by any means possible.”

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