Yahoo Finance New Hampshire Libertarian Party draws criticism for posting photo of Ukraine's Zelenskyy with a Hitler mustache
New Hampshire's Libertarian Party has come under fire for tweeting a photo of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The photo was edited to depict the Ukrainian president with a mustache similar to Adolf Hitler's.
Organizations that speak out against antisemitism have condemned the photo.
New Hampshire's Libertarian Party was slammed online on Monday for tweeting an edited image of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that depicted with a Hitler-style mustache.
"When you order a Hitler on Wish.com," the party's caption read, prompting widespread criticism on Twitter.
The party's Twitter account then posted a collage of headlines concerning far-right and neo-Nazi extremists in Ukraine.
It also shared an article written by "The Grayzone," a far-left website known to cite pro-Kremlin and Russian sources. The site has also been accused of promoting conspiracy theories such as the baseless claim that Bill Gates had planned the outbreak of COVID-19.
Retweets of the photo largely consisted of people condemning the post, with some accusing the party of supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine war.
—Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) September 5, 2022
"When you are a party that only has like two members, it's hard to replace the guy with the twitter account," GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois wrote in his response to the tweet on Monday. The Libertarian Party in New Hampshire currently holds no elected government positions for the state.
The photo was also criticized by Twitter accounts for non-profit organizations that speak out against antisemitism.
"The President of Ukraine's grandfather fought against the Nazis in WW2; to put a Hitler mustache on Zelenskyy, a direct Jewish descendent of a man who put his life on the line fighting Hitler, is atrocious!" an account for StopAntisemitism wrote.
—StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) September 5, 2022
—Jewish on Campus (@JewishonCampus_) September 5, 2022
Nolan Pelletier, chair of the Libertarian Party in New Hampshire, responded to the criticism in an email to Insider. He wrote that the reaction to the photo of Zelenskyy "shows that people care more about optics and posturing" and said the US government's support for Ukraine's current leadership "led to this mess."
When asked if his party supported Putin, Pelletier called the Russian leader "a petty tyrant who locked up anti-war protesters and has silenced his political opposition."
"But the fact is that the United States is not funding his side of the war. That's why our criticism has been aimed at Ukraine instead. If the US starts arming Russia, you will see our criticism toward Putin increase," he said.
The National Libertarian Party told Insider in a statement that it agreed with its New Hampshire chapter's tweet, and also condemned Zelenskyy for allowing neo-Nazi groups to fight Russia's invasion.
"We are proud to be America's only truly anti-war party, and as such, we stand with the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire's online criticism of Zelenskyy," the statement read.
Since the war in Ukraine began in February, Moscow has increasingly backed the false narrative that the Ukrainian government is run by Nazis as a pretext for its invasion.
A neo-Nazi presence does exist in Ukraine. Before the war, some of the country's streets and monuments were dedicated to former Nazi collaborators from World War II. Some members of its volunteer battalions are known to have neo-Nazi roots as well, such as the Azov Battalion, an ultranationalist paramilitary force founded by a white supremacist.
However, Zelenskyy, who was democratically elected into office in 2019, is Jewish. Some of his family members were also killed in the Holocaust.
"You are told we are Nazis, but how can a people support Nazis that gave more than 8 million lives for the victory over Nazism? How can I be a Nazi?" he said in February, in response to Moscow's claims.
The US State Department and experts on information warfare have also warned that Russia's claims about Zelenskyy are part of a far-reaching disinformation campaign to justify Moscow's war.
Read the original article on Business Insider