Using JK ROWLING to frantically attack the West, Putin compares the abort culture to the Nazis in his latest bizarre tirade

VLADIMIR Putin has used JK Rowling to frantically attack the West – and compared the Cancel culture to the Nazis in his latest bizarre babble.

In a television session, the Russian dictator said British Harry Potter author was canceled “only because it did not meet the demands of gender rights”.

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Putin also accused the West of trying to “cancel” the works of Russian composers such as Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

He said: “They recently fired Joanne Rowling – the children’s book author, her books are published all over the world – simply for failing to meet gender rights demands.

“They are now trying to abolish our country. I’m talking about progressive discrimination against everything related to Russia.”

Rowling, 56, has been targeted by some trans people for her views on gender and gender identity.

Putin also compared the “abort culture” to Nazis attempting to burn books in the 1930s.

“We remember the footage of when they burned books,” he said.

“Something like this is unimaginable in our country and thanks to our culture we are insured against it.

“And for us it is inextricably linked to our motherland, to Russia, where there is no place for ethnic intolerance, where representatives of dozens of ethnic groups have lived together for centuries.”

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov compared Europe’s tactics to Nazi Germany and slammed sanctions on Moscow.

He said the term “total war” was borrowed from Hitler’s playbook.

“They declared us a real hybrid war, a total war,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a meeting in Moscow.

“This term – used by Nazi Germany – is now used by many European politicians when saying what they want to do with Russia.”

He accused European officials of trying to “destroy, break, annihilate and suffocate the economy and Russia as a whole”.

Since Putin sent troops to Ukraine on February 24, the West has savaged Moscow with unprecedented measures – making Russia the most heavily sanctioned country in the world.

Moscow has claimed it wants to “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine.

The Soviet Union’s role in defeating Hitler’s Germany in 1945 remains a source of great pride in Russia – and is the focus of Putin’s patriotic speeches.

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Putin has criticized the West’s economic “Blitzkrieg” and likened the sanctions to “Nazi anti-Semitic pogroms”.

He also accuses the West of weakening Russia with the help of “national traitors”.

It comes as Ukrainian forces are pushing back Russians from around Kyiv – Boris Johnson said they could “certainly” win against the invaders.

The latest assessment by the Ministry of Defense says that the Ukrainians are likely to continue trying to drive the Russians out of the capital.

“Ukrainian counterattacks and Russian forces, drawing on stretched supply lines, have enabled Ukraine to reoccupy towns and defensive positions up to 35 kilometers (22 miles) east of Kyiv,” it said.

In the south of the country it was said that the Russian advance on the important port city of Odessa on the Black Sea was slowed down by “logistical problems and Ukrainian resistance”.

Speaking to BBC2’s Newsnight, the Prime Minister said: “In a way, Putin has already failed or lost because I think he literally had no idea that Ukrainians would put up the resistance that they are and he completely misunderstood has what Ukraine is.

“And far from wiping out Ukraine as a nation, he is solidifying it.”