The Kremlin’s Antisemitism Machine and Its War Against the West: A Q&A With Author David Reaboi

David Reaboi is a writer and strategic communications consultant whose work focuses on national security, political warfare, and influence operations.

He is the author of Qatar’s Shadow War: The Islamist Emirate and Its Information Operations in the United States (2021), which examines Qatar’s cultivation of influence through American media, think tanks, and political institutions.

His forthcoming book, The Epstein Conspiracy: How Russia Turned a Lie About Jeffrey Epstein into a Weapon Against America, Israel, and Jews, traces the startling origins of the conspiracy theory that the disgraced financier was an agent of Israeli intelligence — and a Russian campaign to confuse and destabilize America by promoting antisemitism.

CAM recently spoke with Reaboi about how antisemitism, long a feature of Russian society, became a core component of the Kremlin’s national security policy.

How far back does Russia’s use of antisemitism as an instrument of statecraft go, and what distinguishes the Russian tradition from ordinary popular antisemitism?

“The modern tradition goes back at least to the mid-nineteenth century, well before they’d invented The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Ordinary Jewish institutions, schools, and charities were portrayed as parts of a secret government operating against Russia. Faced with opposition arising from conditions inside Russia, the Tsars used these antisemitic conspiracy theories as an excuse for repression. Attributing that opposition to hidden Jewish direction allowed it to deny the legitimacy of the grievances against it.”

“What distinguishes this from popular prejudice is its deliberate incorporation into government, policing, and political warfare. Antisemitism is more than a hatred: it is an explanation of power. It identifies a concealed enemy supposedly responsible for otherwise unrelated problems, then makes action against that enemy appear necessary to the nation’s survival.”

“This practice is not uniquely Russian, of course. What matters in the Russian case is its persistence across radically different types of regimes — from Tsarist to Communist to Putinite Gangsterism — and its development into an instrument used against foreign societies.”

How did Soviet intelligence adapt those older themes for foreign audiences, particularly against the United States and Israel?

 “The Soviet adaptation made the older Jewish world-conspiracy story speak the language of anti-imperialism, anti-racism, and anti-fascism. ‘International Zionism’ became an alleged system of financial, political, and media control. Israel became both its visible embodiment and an instrument of American imperialism — especially after Israel defeated Soviet-backed Arab states in 1967’s Six-Day War.”

“The central maneuver was to give familiar accusations a politically acceptable vocabulary. Claims about Jewish control became claims about Zionist influence. Audiences that understood themselves as opponents of racism could adopt these claims as expressions of their moral commitments. The Soviets understood that their foreign audiences did not have to embrace communism; they only had to embrace a grievance Moscow could exploit. ‘Anti-Zionism’ fit that role perfectly.”

Is there a recognizable continuity between Soviet active measures and contemporary Russian narratives about Jewish financiers, secret global elites, “Nazis,” Zionism, and Western decadence — or are we looking at a substantially different propaganda system under Putin? The State Department’s 2024 review argues for a strong historical continuity. 

“There is substantial continuity in the political objectives, conspiratorial explanations, and operational techniques. The recurring accusation is that governments, newspapers, financial institutions, and civic organizations appear independent but supposedly answer to the same hidden interests. Jewish financiers, ‘Zionists,’ or secret global elites can be assigned to play whichever role, depending on the audience. That flexibility enhances its usefulness; the same alleged enemy can simultaneously be blamed for capitalism and revolution, imperialism and national decline, moral permissiveness and political repression. Russia can claim the moral authority of defeating Nazism while circulating antisemitic explanations of its current enemies. The messages need not make sense in order to serve a political purpose.”

“Putin’s system today has a broader ideological repertoire than official Soviet Marxism-Leninism. It can appeal to anti-colonial resentment, religious traditionalism, nationalism, or hostility to liberal institutions. Social media allows these appeals to circulate through different communities without requiring each audience to accept the others’ beliefs. Yet even that flexibility has Soviet precedents: Soviet operations also exploited people who were neither communists nor conscious collaborators.”

When Russian media and influence networks circulate antisemitic or anti-Zionist narratives in American political debate, what is the strategic objective: persuading Americans of a particular claim, undermining trust in U.S. institutions and alliances, setting factions against each other, or all three?

“All three can contribute, but they occupy different places in the strategy. While persuading Americans of a particular claim is a means, weakening America’s capacity to understand and pursue its interests is the larger objective. Attacks on Jews and Israel can serve that objective by discrediting alliances, making institutions appear illegitimate, and redirecting political loyalties.”

“In my new book, I show how the conspiracy theory that Jeffrey Epstein worked for Israeli intelligence is a Russian information operation.”

“The Kremlin doesn’t care what Americans think about Epstein himself; their goal is to convince Americans that their leaders support Israel because they are corrupt, blackmailed, and otherwise compromised. Like a negative political ad, an American who buys into this narrative need not be convinced of anything positive about Putin. Simply by running up the negatives, this American can become a useful ally against the supposedly greater enemy controlling Washington.”

“None of this requires every American participant to receive instructions from Russia. Conviction, audience demand, commercial incentives, and political hostility can sustain a narrative after Russian outlets have promoted it. The strategic payoff comes when Americans treat their own institutions and alliances as enemy instruments — and act accordingly.”

Read more:

On Epstein-Mossad Conspiracy Theories, All Roads Lead to Moscow

From the ‘Protocols’ to Podcasts: How Russia Turned Antisemitism Into a Weapon Against America