dénazifier

To denazify — to remove Nazi influence, personnel, or ideology from a society or institution, historically used of post-1945 Germany. The word returned to global prominence in 2022 when Vladimir Putin cited "denazification" as a stated goal of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

• Les Alliés ont cherché à dénazifier l'administration allemande après 1945. — The Allies sought to denazify the German administration after 1945.
• Poutine a déclaré vouloir dénazifier l'Ukraine. — Putin declared he wanted to denazify Ukraine.
• Les historiens débattent de l'efficacité réelle des mesures pour dénazifier le pays. — Historians debate how effective the measures to denazify the country really were.

This is a historically loaded word — in 2022 its use by Russia to justify the invasion of Ukraine was widely condemned as a baseless pretext, since Ukraine had no meaningful Nazi government to remove; be aware of that political context before using the term casually.

• politics Discours de Vladimir Poutine, 24 février 2022 — In his televised address announcing the invasion of Ukraine, Putin stated Russia would seek "une démilitarisation et une dénazification de l'Ukraine" (a demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine), making the verb dénazifier central to the war's stated justification.