Overview
- Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called Annalena Baerbock’s elevation to lead the UN General Assembly a desecration of the memory of Nazi victims.
- Zakharova claimed Baerbock expressed pride in a grandfather who fought in Königsberg and suggested he fought on the side of the Third Reich.
- Baerbock took the oath in September as president of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly.
- RIA Novosti cited a Bild report alleging Baerbock’s grandfather was an ardent Nazi and Wehrmacht officer who read Mein Kampf and received the War Merit Cross in 1944, presented as a tabloid claim.
- Russia’s deputy UN envoy Dmitry Polyansky has previously described Baerbock as marked by rabid Russophobia and very strange statements.