A U.S. Jewish advocacy group denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s suggestion that Jews were responsible for the meddling in the 2016 presidential election and called for Putin to “clarify his comments.”

“President Putin suggesting that Russian Federation minorities, be they Ukrainian, Tatar, or Jewish, were behind U.S. election is eerily reminiscent of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. He should clarify his comments at the earliest opportunity,” the American Jewish Committee tweeted Saturday.

President Putin suggesting that Russian Federation minorities, be they Ukrainian, Tatar, or Jewish, were behind U.S. election meddling is eerily reminiscent of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. He should clarify his comments at the earliest opportunity. https://t.co/NsG1qFSlWq — AJC (@AJCGlobal) March 10, 2018



Putin has come under fire for remarks about Russian meddling he made during an interview with NBC News.

“Maybe they’re not even Russians,” Putin said of those behind the efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. “Maybe they’re Ukrainians, Tatars, Jews, just with Russian citizenship. Even that needs to be checked. Maybe they have dual citizenship, or maybe a green card. Maybe it was the Americans who paid them for this work. How do you know? I don’t know.”

In addition to the American Jewish Committee, members of Israel's parliament have condemned Putin’s comments.

“We r quite familiar with the oldies ‘Maybe Jews run the world, maybe Jews use blood for their rituals, maybe Jews had slaughtered Jews in Poland’. Now comes the latest hit ‘maybe Jews meddled in US elections’. Our government has to condemn strongly this statement #putin #jews,” Ksenia Svetlova, a Zionist Union lawmaker tweeted.

We r quite familiar with the oldies “Maybe Jews run the world, maybe Jews use blood for their rituals, maybe Jews had slaughtered Jews in Poland” . Now comes the latest hit “maybe Jews meddled in US elections”. Our government has to condemn strongly this statement #putin #jews https://t.co/pz2JFc4hYi — Ksenia Svetlova (@KseniaSvetlova) March 10, 2018



Members of the U.S. intelligence community concluded in a January 2017 report Russia meddled in the 2016 election.

Last month, special counsel Robert Mueller, who leading the investigation into Russia’s interference, indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies for meddling in the presidential election.