Did Russian leader Vladimir Putin end the Rothschild family's control over Russia by nationalizing Russia's central bank? No, that's not true: Russia has had a central bank for more than 160 years. Alexander II, the emperor of Russia, signed a decree to establish the State Bank in 1860. There's no evidence the Rothschild family, which has built a banking and financial dynasty across Europe, ever controlled Russia, and Putin is not responsible for nationalizing the country's central bank.
Jewish control of major banks and financial institutions is a classic antisemitic conspiracy theory, according to reports from the Anti-Defamation League.
The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) on March 14, 2018, under the headline "JUST INCASE YOU'RE WONDERING WHY THEY HATE HIM..." It opened:
VLADIMIR PUTIN
HE ENDED THE ROTHSCHILD'S CONTROL
OVER RUSSIA BY NATIONALIZING THE
RUSSIAN CENTRALIZED BANK. HE BANNED
GMO'S AND CREATED A CURRENCY TO
COMPTETE AGAINST THE DOLLAR.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook on April 18, 2022:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Apr 18 14:37:15 2022 UTC)
Russia has long had a central bank. The first one was founded in 1860 and was called the State Bank. It has been reorganized many times over the last century and a half and now goes by the name the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, or the Bank of Russia. The State Bank became the Bank of Russia in 1992, eight years before Putin was elected president for the first time in 2000.
An antisemitic myth
The Facebook meme plays into one aspect of a QAnon conspiracy theory, that banks around the world are owned and controlled by a nefarious group of wealthy families. The Rothschild name often tops that list. The online version of Encyclopedia Britannica says this:
As a Jewish family, the Rothschilds have been targeted by conspiracy theorists as a prime example of Jews allegedly using their money to control global financial institutions. These claims have been roundly condemned and proven false, but they continue to persist.
The Anti-Defamation League has published reports regarding the antisemitic conspiracy theories about wealthy Jewish families owning all the world's banks:
In more recent years, the antisemitic notion that 'the Jews' dominate and command the U.S. Federal Reserve System and in effect control the world's money has surfaced across the extremist spectrum.
A section in the report titled "The Rothschild Connection" says, "In the literature of bigots, the name Rothschild is a trigger for the most explosive of antisemitic tremors, and it usually sets off a litany of other Jewish names." The article continues:
In 1983, the charge that Rothschild banks and other international banking concerns, mostly with Jewish names, controlled the Federal Reserve was published (probably from earlier sources) in the newsletter of a local Pennsylvania chapter of the National Association of Retired Federal Employees (NARFE) -- not an extremist group. The article stated that the Federal Reserve System 'is not a Federal entity but a private corporation owned in part by the following: Rothschild banks of London and Berlin, Lazard Brothers bank of Paris, Israel Moses Seif banks of Italy, Warburg bank of Hamburg and Amsterdam, Lehman Bros. bank of New York, Chase Manhattan bank of New York, Kuhn, Loeb bank of New York, Goldman Sachs bank of New York.'
In fact the Federal Reserve Bank of New York -- the largest and most significant of the Fed's 12 banks -- lists the banks in the Second Federal Reserve District that are members and stockholders in the New York Federal Reserve Bank. With the exception of the Chase Manhattan Bank, the institutions cited by the NARFE newsletter as allegedly owning and controlling the Federal Reserve system ('Rothschild ... Lazard Brothers ... Israel Moses Seif... Warburg ... Lehman Brothers ... Kuhn, Loeb ... Goldman, Sachs') were not members of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Lead Stories has written several articles debunking claims concerning the Rothschild family. You can see those here.
QAnon is an unfounded conspiracy theory that posits, among other things, that former President Donald Trump is waging a secret war against satanic Hollywood elites, Democratic elected officials and business leaders who are running a secret international child sex trafficking ring. QAnon followers receive messages online from an account called "Q" that they believe informs them of the coded messages Trump is sending to signify his accomplishments in the secret war. QAnon supporters believe Trump will oversee arrests of high-powered people for child sex abuse and that he will be returned to a place of power as the president again. They have been referring to something called the "Storm," which will be the moment Trump will expose and punish the international cabal of evil-doers.
Lead Stories has debunked multiple claims made by QAnon supporters including these here and here.
