RUSSIAN FEDERATION 2001-2

 

Political antisemitism in Russia has declined in comparison to the late 1990s. However, the emergence of a new and very violent generation of ultra-nationalists and of extremist Islamist organizations, as well as reports of several serious antisemitic incidents in the first half of 2002, is cause for concern. A worsening of the domestic situation in Russia – economically, socially and security-wise – could prompt a resurgence of antisemitism in the near future.

 

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

Organized Jewish activity continued, thanks to the increasing support of international Jewish groups such as the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (Joint) and Habad, which contributed tens of millions of dollars to this effort. Russian Jewish millionaires, many of whom have key positions in local communal affairs, also made donations, but to a lesser extent than in the past.

            About 230 Jewish organizations of various types are active in about 120 Russian cities with a sizable Jewish population (Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk being the largest). They are gathered under several umbrella organizations: the Russian Jewish Congress (REK), led by Evgenii Satanovskii, founded in January 1996; the Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia (FEOR), led by Berl Lazar, founded in November 1999 on the initiative of millionaire Boris Berezovskii and the Russian government, and funded by Russian-Israeli businessman Lev Levaev; the Federation of Jewish Communal Organizations of Russia (Va’ad), led by Michael Chlenov, founded in December 1989; and the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EEK), led by Aleksandr Mashkovich, founded in November 2001. These organizations compete for the representation of Russian Jewry, each hoping to become the chief factor in the government’s “Jewish policy”: a national project called Sons of the Homeland (Sootechestvenniki), aimed at influencing Russians now living in the West or in Israel to promote the economic and political interests of Russia in their new countries. However, organized Jewish activity involves only about 10 percent of the Russian Jewish population and is not a major factor in the life of much of Russian Jewry. Primarily, the Jews are concerned with the country’s political, economic and security problems, to which they have reacted by emigrating, principally to Israel.

 

extremist organizations

The Extreme Right, the Extreme Left and Neo-Nazi Groups

In recent years antisemitism has been used as a weapon in political struggles within Russia, particularly by the Communist Party and its parliamentary faction, which accused the government of selling out to the Jews (see ASW 1999/2000). The government was reluctant to deal with such allegations, concerned that opposition to racism and antisemitism would be construed as contrary to the national spirit. The strongly nationalist Putin administration has changed this situation fundamentally by usurping both far left and far right ideologies. In addition, the fact that only a few identified Jews have posts in the administration has further served to undercut the importance of political antisemitism as an issue in Russia today.

            There has been a marked drop in the activity of extremist groups such as neo-Nazis, who have suffered internal division. Aleksandr Barkashov, veteran leader of Russian National Unity (RNE), was expelled on 22 September 2000, and the organization split into five competing groups, active mostly in Moscow. Barkashov himself does not lead any of them. The Russian National Bolshevik Party broke up after its leader Eduard Limonov was arrested on 7 April 2001 for the illegal accumulation of weapons. The increased surveillance of extremist groups is part of the authorities’ policy of restricting freedom of political activity in general and preventing political ferment.

The continuing economic crises, the war in the northern Caucasus, mass migration to central Russia, especially of Muslims and Caucasians from former Soviet states, and Islamic revivalism among Russian Muslims, have resulted in a sharp increase in racism among Slavic people, particularly among the young. New, extreme nationalist groups have sprung up throughout the country, but mainly in the large cities. Some, with Nazi ideologies, want “to cleanse Russia of any foreign presence” – Caucasian, Asian or African – with antisemitism still marginal at this time. Skinhead activity has increased, in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk, Irkutsk, Vladivostok, Voronezh and Yaruslavl’. The most militant groups are the RNS (Russian National Alliance), White Power, Totenkopf, United Brigade 88, Hammerskins - Russia, Blood & Honour, Moscow Skin Legion, the Russian Goal, the Russian Fist, National Front Terror, and White Bears. Their activity is similar to that of skinhead groups in the West: physical attacks on foreigners in the streets and markets, sometimes resulting in murder, arson against hostels for foreigners and minorities, demonstrations, marches and disseminating racist propaganda. This has already caused many foreign students to leave Russian universities and brought official protests from diplomatic representatives of the student’s home countries, including the United States and other Western countries.

 

Islamist Groups

Some 25 million Muslims live within the Russian Federation – in the northern Caucasus, in Tatarstan, in Bashkirostan and in the large Russian cities (1.5 million in Moscow). Aware of the dangers of Muslim extremism, the Russian government demanded already in October 1999 that Syria, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait prevent extremist Islamic factors from intervening in the internal affairs of Russia, including extending support to Muslim rebels in the northern Caucasus and Muslim extremists elsewhere in Russia. The demands had little effect, and guidance centers for Islamic ideological indoctrination continue to exist throughout Russia.

At the beginning of 2002, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) announced that it had uncovered cells of the Muslim Brotherhood movement in 49 of Russia’s administrative regions, as well as in other FSU states. It stated that the leaders of the Russian Muslim Brotherhood coordinated their activities with Islamic terrorist organizations in the Middle East (al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya, al-Jihad al-Islami), as well as with Usama bin Ladin, and Islamist terror organizations in Bosnia (former Yugoslavia). The FSB report also noted that the heads of the Chechen rebels in the northern Caucasus had informed leaders of Palestinian terrorist organizations (Hamas and al-Jihad al-Islami) operating in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip that they were prepared to send experienced fighters to help them.

Centers for Islamic ideological indoctrination working under cover of legitimate bodies include the Society for Social Reform, headed by Ramis Khalitov and funded by Kuwait, and Muslim seminaries in the Tatarstan cities of Kazan, Almetievsk, Nizhnekamsk, of which the most well-known is Joldiz in Naberezhnie Chelni, sponsored by the Pakistani organization Tavlig. Propaganda is also disseminated by radio stations, such as the Voice of Islam, which broadcasts antisemitic material from Dagestan.

Summer camps for Muslim youth are held throughout Russia, (near Moscow, Tiumen, Orenburg and Samar, among other locations), with counselors from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Some young people are chosen to continue their studies in Arab countries and some even undergo military training and are sent to fight against the Russian army in Chechnya.

Members of Islamist groups, including former students of Tatarstan seminaries, were involved with professional kidnappers in the abduction of Jews and Israeli citizens in Russia in the past. In the northern Caucasus there were cases of robbery and even murder of Jews planning emigration to Israel. Even when there was primarily a criminal intent to these acts, the perpetrators tried to present them as ideologically motivated, such as anti-Zionism or the “return of stolen property” to the people.

 

ANTISEMITIC INCIDENTS

There were 35 antisemitic incidents in 19 Russian cities in 2001, compared to 18 incidents in 13 Russian cities in 2000. They included physical attacks, including the attempt to kill – in one case successfully, when Yosef Prosovskii lost his life in May in an arson attack on a well-known Moscow restaurant he ran. In another brutal incident on February Habad representative Abraham Grozman was attacked by 15 thugs near the Marina Rocha synagogue. Nobody was arrested.

There were 12 attacks in eight cities (four in Moscow) on synagogues and community property, including arson or damage by stone-throwing. For example, in July and August there were two attempts to burn the synagogue of Kostroma. In the spring and summer of 2001 there were also two attempts to burn the synagogue of Perm, one on Hitler’s birthday, 20 April. Twice in June the memorial to Holocaust victims in Smolensk was desecrated. The monument was erected to commemorate the memory of three thousand Jews of Smolensk who were murdered during World War II. In addition, there were ten incidents of cemetery desecration in nine cities, including one on 19 August in Krasnoyarsk, where about 50 tombstones in the Jewish cemetery were defaced with Nazi symbols and swastikas. The perpetrators acted only a few days after the visit of the chief rabbi of Russia, Berl Lazar, who said that inter-faith relations in that area were among the calmest in the country. Antisemitic materials bearing Nazi slogans and swastikas were disseminated in six cities; half of the incidents occurred in Moscow, for example, at an anti-globalization rally on 23 May. Valerii Riumin, mayoral candidate in Reazin, used antisemitic propaganda in his election campaign in January.

American racist David Duke made his third visit to Russia in February 2001, and met with heads of ultra-nationalist movements as well as right and left members of parliament. A Russian translation of his book The Jewish Question through the Eyes of an American was published.

Many members of the Duma (parliament), including vice-chairmen Liubov Sliska and Vladimir Zhirinovskii, refused to stand for a moment of silence honoring victims of the Holocaust.

The local authorities in Orial presented awards to Sergei Zarodniev and Yuri Levdikin, reporters for the local paper Orlovskaia Pravda, who had written in support of local neo-Nazi leader Igor Semionov.

 

responses to antisemitism

In the first half of 2002, 17 incidents of a clearly antisemitic nature were carried out in 12 cities, and were similar in pattern to those in 2001. Putin, who often refers to this subject, said, in a meeting with Jewish leaders on 19 March 2002, that if nationalist and religious xenophobia and extremism could not be stopped “we will not be able to preserve Russia as a state.” He repeated this in a speech to the people on 18 April 2002. Nevertheless the reaction of the authorities to antisemitism and racism in 2002 was as irresolute as in 2001, notwithstanding President Putin’s sharp censure of these manifestations. Although a few legal steps were taken to control antisemitic propaganda, such as warnings sent to the editors of several ultra-nationalistic papers and attempts to prevent the convening of chauvinist congresses in some cities, there was a clear reluctance to take legal action against the disseminators of these materials.

The issue of antisemitic activity has figured prominently in the political rivalry between the heads of the two major Jewish organizations. Rabbi Berl Lazar, head of FEOR, flying in the face of facts, has repeatedly declared that there has been a sharp decline in antisemitic activity, while at a press conference held on 24 April 2002 Evgenii Satanovskii, chairman of REK, expressed his concern that if the authorities did not take drastic steps to curb the atmosphere of antisemitism and racism in respect to both propaganda and physical violence, the country would become Nazified in the near future.

In light of the seriousness of the situation, as well as pressure from the president, the Duma (parliament) is considering toughening the laws against racism and xenophobia, possibly by enforcing a ban on extremist and racist organizations. In February a hearing was held in parliament on bills against political extremism and against the use of Nazi symbols and dissemination of Nazi literature. These laws have been before the legislature since 1998, but were always rejected by the Communists. In this connection, an opinion poll in Moscow revealed that 16 percent of respondents thought there were some positive ideas in National Socialism, and 21 percent thought the activities of Nazi groups should not be curtailed.