Russian Federation 2005

 

The trend of violent attacks motivated by inter-ethnic and inter-religious hatred continued to rise, and several Jews were assaulted. The year witnessed a surge in antisemitic propaganda, linked primarily to the ‘Letter of 500’ – an appeal to the prosecutor general urging him to review the activity of all Jewish organizations in Russia due to their alleged extremism. Antisemitism was frequently exploited by nationalist/skinhead politicians and groups for political purposes. The Rodina (Motherland – National Patriotic Union) party was banned from participating in local elections in most regions of Russia due to its promotion of antisemitism and xenophobia. Official response to antisemitic propaganda remained weak, although there was a considerable increase in convictions for dissemination of hate propaganda.

 

Jewish Community

Many Russian Jews are assimilated, having been cut off from religious traditions until the collapse of the Soviet Union. According to the last population census held in 2002, the Jewish population in Russia was 230,000 (out of about 144 million); however, since not all Jews reveal their nationality, the number is probably higher. Most Jews live in the big cities.

Among umbrella Jewish organizations in Russia the oldest are the VAAD of Russia (also known as the Federation of Jewish Organizations and Communities, FEOR, founded in 1992) and the Russian Jewish Congress (REK, founded in 1996). Jewish religious communal organizations follow three trends: traditional Rabbinic Orthodoxy, Reform Judaism and the Lubavitch Hasidim (ChaBaD; Chief Rabbi of Russia Berl Lazar). There is also the Congress of Jewish Religious Communities and Organizations of Russia (KEROOR, founded in 1993; president – Arkadii Gaiidamak; Chief Rabbi of Russia Avraam-Adolf Shaevich). The Vaad of Russia and the Russian Jewish Congress established the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. In 2002 the Federation of Jewish Communities and the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress founded the World Congress of Russian Speaking Jewry.

There are 45 Jewish elementary schools in Russia, some 60 Sunday schools, a small network of pre-school education, religious high schools (yeshiva) and pedagogical colleges. Most schools are financed by the national budget and/or community organizations, the Jewish Agency in Russia, ORT or international religious organizations.

Other institutions in Moscow and St. Petersburg are: the Russian-US Center for Bible and Jewish Studies under the Russian State Humanitarian University, the Maimonides State Classical Academy, the S. Dubnov Higher School (former Jewish University in Moscow), the Center for Jewish Studies and Civilization under the Institute of Asian and African Countries of Moscow State University, the 21st Century University, St. Petersburg Institute of Jewish Studies, the Center for Bible and Jewish Studies under the Philosophy Faculty of St. Petersburg State University. Holocaust studies are coordinated by the Holocaust Foundation, established in 1992. Several cities have sections of the Jewish international youth organization Hillel. A number of the communities and organizations issue newspapers and bulletins and operate Internet sites.

 

antisemitic parties and groups

The head of state is the president, elected by a national vote for a four-year term (Vladimir Putin − since May 2000). Legislative power is in the hands of a bicameral parliament: the lower house, State Duma, with 450 deputies elected under a mixed system; Federal Council, with 176 deputies, appointed by regional leaders and legislative meetings. The last elections took place in 2003.

In general, antisemitism in election campaigns is usually limited to marginal candidates with no prospects of winning more than 1−2 percent of the vote. However, in December, during by-elections to the State Duma in Moscow, an independent candidate, ex-Colonel Vladimir Kvachkov – who was in custody, awaiting trial for the attempted assassination of Anatolii Chubais (chairman of the Unified Energy System of Russia, a Jew and former MP, who in the early 1990s was part of a group of economists who pushed for privatization of state property) − won 29 percent of the vote. While in custody, he wrote a tract calling for violence against “Judeo-international occupation.” The high-circulation national newspaper Komsomolskaia Pravda, which is known for its xenophobia, attempted to clear Kvachkov of antisemitism by explaining that the reference to ‘Yids’ meant “greedy people” and not all Jews.”

In late 2005/early 2006 the nationalist Rodina (Motherland – National Patriotic Union) party was banned from participating in local elections in most regions of Russia, including Moscow, due to its promotion of xenophobia and antisemitism. Rodina, led by Dmitrii Rogozin, was created as a pro-Putin national leftist bloc (both nationalist and socialist in orientation) that would compete with the Communists prior to the 2003 elections to the State Duma. However, inspired by the success of the ‘Orange Revolution’ in Ukraine in late 2004 and as a result of the social welfare reforms being pushed through by the Putin government in early 2005, which Rogozin opposed, he decided to severe ties with the presidential administration and turn the party into a real opposition. This led to radicalism of the party’s nationalist wing.

In October 2005, the Slavic Union (Slavianskii Soiuz – SS, a skinhead movement) published a video on its website in which Duma Deputy Nikolaii Kurianovich, of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), standing near SS leader Dmitrii Demushkin, said that the SS movement and skinheads were useful organizations and made the Nazi salute. Chief Rabbi Berl Lazar wrote to LDPR head Vladimir Zhirinovskii expressing his concern and asking him to take steps to rid the party of racists and antisemites. In early November Lazar received a reply from Zhirinivskii claiming that the LDPR aimed to unite all opposition forces in one party and that Kurianovich was trying to establish relations with several youth groups, including skinheads, in the hope that some of them might be drawn away from extremism. He also wrote that the party was neither antisemitic nor xenophobic.

On 15 August 2005 National Sovereign Party of Russia (NDPR) leaflets appeared on lampposts in the center of Vladimir calling for the Russian people to save Russia from the Jews and listing prominent Jewish figures.

In January 2005, activists of Russian National Unity (RNE, a well known nationalist, antisemitic organization) in Oryol distributed an antisemitic leaflet against Governor Igor Stroev, who though not a Jew had previously harshly criticized the RNE. On 26 January five men claiming to be members of RNE entered a synagogue in Moscow and threatened to burn it down and kill the Jews.

A neo-heathen organization calling itself Spiritual Ancestral of the Russian Empire passed death sentences on top Russian government officials for their alleged Judeo-Nazism, and labeled President Putin “a Judeo-Nazi lackey.” In March 2005 the leader, Oleg Popov, was arrested.

Antisemitic statements were made in 2005 by the deputy chairman of Tula Duma, Vladimir Timakov (Rodina Party), who in 2005 served as chief editor of Zasechnii Rubezh which for years has published antisemitic articles, and by the deputy chairman of the Legislative Assembly of Vladimir region, Aleksandr Siniagin (Communist Party). In February, another regional deputy from Vladimir, Alekseii Andrianov, head of the local, nationalist Nationwide Russian Union, distributed election leaflets containing phrases such as “Judaic gangrene” and “a new world order under the rule of the Jewish bourgeoisie,” which Andrianov claimed Stalin had frustrated in his campaign against “rootless cosmopolitans.” On 16 February and 25 March former governor of Kaliningrad region Leonid Gorbenko, co-chairman of the local Rubezh Rodiny movement, made antisemitic remarks, such as “the Yids sold out Russia,” and “there are Jews all around,” during a press conference. Vladimir Yudin, a deputy from the Tver region Legislative Assembly and doctor of philology, known for defending neo-Nazis in court, published an antisemitic book entitled Where the Fatherland Begins… (Summer 2005), with the support of the local administration. However, all copies of the book were confiscated following protests of Yudin’s colleagues from Tver University and the local Jewish community.

 

Antisemitic activity

Violence, Vandalism, Harassment and Insults

The trend of violent attacks motivated by inter-ethnic and inter-religious hatred continued to rise. Most assaults were carried out by groups of teenagers from sub-groups of racist skinheads. These ‘youth groups’ target victims according to racial, national and religious origin. Jews are not the prime target of ‘street racists’: the main victims are blacks and natives of the Caucasus, Central Asia and Asian-Pacific regions; however, because of the generally high level of aggressive racism in the country, Jews are often attacked.

A non-Jewish citizen, Leonid Tysiachnyii, was brutally beaten on 1 January at Moscow’s Pushkin metro station. When the attacker was arrested, he said that he had attacked Tysiachnyii only because he looked like a Jew. He was released, which is not unusual, since attackers in such cases are frequently not prosecuted.

Two rabbis, Aleksandr Lakshin and Reuven Kuravskii, were attacked while walking with two children in an underground passage near the Marina Roscha Jewish Center in Moscow. The perpetrators shouted antisemitic insults and injured Lakshin, who was hospitalized with head injuries and broken bones. Two hours earlier a Jewish couple had been attacked in the same place. On 19 January two suspects were arrested and on 21 July the Ostankinskii district court in Moscow convicted Dmitrii Rozanov and Andreii Maksin of assault and hooliganism rather than of an antisemitic attack. Rozanov was sentenced to four years imprisonment and Maksin to a year and a half.

On the first night of Passover, 23 April, skinheads followed the chairman of the Tambov Jewish community and students of the yeshiva, shouting “Jews!” and “Jude Schwein” (Jewish pigs).

Unidentified offenders tried to disrupt a Jewish concert performed by the Turetskii Choir in Kursk, on 1 October, by painting antisemitic slogans on the building and making phone calls protesting the “Zionist concert” and threatening to blow up the hall. Workers cleaned the graffiti and the concert went ahead. Police launched an investigation. Mikhail Turetskii, the choir’s manager and conductor, said that they had gotten used to such expressions of intolerance against his choir.

Arson and vandalism of religious and cultural property is quite common. On 1 January a wooden synagogue in the village of Saltykovka outside Moscow was set alight. The fire was noticed immediately and extinguished. Six weeks later, swastikas were painted on the fence of the synagogue.

A group of youths who appeared to be skinheads set fire to a building housing the Atikva Center for Jewish Religion and Culture on the night of 9/10 June in Penza. People in the building extinguished the fire. On 30 June two young men stormed a kosher store in Marina Rishcha, not far from the Jewish Community Center. Wearing gas masks, and armed with a fire extinguisher and an imitation Kalashnikov, the intruders shouted “Beat the Kikes, Save Russia,” while they sprayed the shelves with foam from the extinguisher.

On 26 January four males and one female entered the Perov Synagogue of the Shamir religious Jewish community in Moscow and announced they had come to “beat the Jew.” On 15 February members of the community found swastikas and antisemitic slogans on the doors of the synagogue. Desecration of synagogues was also recorded in Samara (March), Malakhovka (near Moscow, May), Vladimir (June), Nizhnii Novgorod (September and October) and Lipetsk (September).

The walls of Jewish community and cultural establishments were covered with graffiti containing swastikas, offensive slogans and threats, and windows were smashed in Moscow, in February, in Petrozavodsk, Siktivkar and Samara, in March, in Taganrog, in July, in Vladimir, in June and August, in Nizhnii Novgorod in September, and in Borovichi (Novgorod region) in October.

Antisemitic graffiti, such as swastikas and the slogans “Beat the kikes,” “Down with the Jewish plague,” “Down with Zionism” and “Death to the Yids” appeared in the streets of cities and towns such as Iuzhnii Sakhalin (January), Yoshkar Ola (August) and Syktyvkar (September).

In addition, in St. Petersburg the door of a Jewish-owned apartment was set alight in February and a Star of David and the word “Kike” painted near it. The windows, door and signs of the Jewish Shalom restaurant were smashed in September. The restaurant was targeted again on the night of 7 October.

Desecration of graves in Jewish and general cemeteries continued at the same level as in previous years. In most cases gravestones were broken and/or swastikas were painted on them. Such acts were reported in Moscow and Kazan in May; in St. Petersburg in June, and on 6 October (70 tombstones) and 15 October (about 50); in Smolensk in July; in Tver in August (8 tombs broken and 50 painted with swastikas, and leaflets reading “Russian! This state is in their hands, they kill your children,” posted on them); in Tambov, also in August, in Makhachkala and Velikie Luki in September; in Kostroma in October and near Izhevsk in November.

 

Propaganda

The year 2005 witnessed a surge in antisemitic propaganda, linked mainly to the ‘Letter of 500’ – an appeal to the prosecutor general urging him to review the activity of all Jewish organizations in Russia due to their alleged extremism. The definition of extremism in the 2002 law is very vague, allowing a broad interpretation. The chief evidence produced against the Jewish organizations was the book Kitsur Shulkhan Arukh, cited already in 2002 by radical nationalist publicist Mikhail Nazarov as a violation of the then recently adopted Law on Combating Extremist Activity. The alleged intolerance of the Shulkhan Arukh and its shorter version – Kitsur Shulkhan Arukh – toward non-Jews was first discussed in Russia about a century ago. (Shulkhan Arukh contains the code of Jewish religious law – a compilation of medieval commentary on the Talmud dating back to the 16th century. Kitsur Shulkhan Arukh was published in the 19th century. In the late 19th century, a distorted translation of the book was used for antisemitic propaganda in Germany and later in Russia.)

Nazarov combined an antisemitic interpretation of Kitsur Shulkhan Arukh with Jewish conspiracy myths to produce a theory, according to which all Jewish organizations were inspired by hatred against non-Jews, and therefore must be banned. This was, in fact, the basis of the letter to the prosecutor general, which Nazarov initiated.

Signature collection began in late autumn 2004 and by 14 January 2005, when it was published by Rus Pravoslavnaia, the letter had been signed by 500 people, including 19 members of the Russian State Duma: 14 from the above mentioned Rodina Party and 5 from the Communist Party. Neither Rodina nor the Communists disowned the signatories, although formally the parties did not support the letter.

On 21 March the State Office of the Public Prosecutor received a second version of the letter with 5,000 signatures (known as the ‘Letter of 5000’). Apart from small stylistic changes, the basic difference from the first version was that instead of demanding the closure of all Jewish organizations, the signatories now called for the institution of “legal proceedings toward the banning in our country of all religious and national associations based on the morals of Shulkhan Arukh as an extremist text.” By the end of 2005, 15,000 signatures had been collected.

Further, in 2005 Nazarov attempted to revive the blood libel myth of ritual killings by Jews. On 12 May 2005 he published an article, “To Live without Fear of Judaism,” in which he accused the Jews of the disappearance, on 16 April 2005, a week before the Jewish holiday of Pesach, of five non-Jewish children in Krasnoiarsk. Nazarov’s ‘proof’ was the 1913 Beylis case, which, he claimed, proved Jewish ritual murder. He also accused local Governor Aleksandr Khloponin of covering up this crime. In mid-May 2005 the children’s bodies were found in a Krasnoiarsk drain.

In St. Petersburg, “Nasha Strategia” (Our Strategy), an explicitly antisemitic TV show (see ASW 2004), ceased in winter 2005, when funds apparently ran out; another, equally antisemitic TV show, “Two vs. One,” hosted by two former hosts of “Nasha Strategia,” Denis Litov and Igor Muratov, replaced it. Broadcasting to the regions, in addition to St. Petersburg, they invite high-profile guests, including Sergeii Mironov, speaker of the Federal Council. The hosts express their antisemitic prejudices incessantly and try to provoke their guests into doing the same. In November 2005 Russian national TV transmitted a series about the Russian poet Sergeii Esenin in which “Jewish Bolsheviks headed by Trotsky” were accused of murdering the poet, who, in fact, hanged himself in 1925. The Jewish characters in the series were presented negatively and stereotypically.

“Narodnoye Radio” (Popular Radio), based in Moscow is also known for the antisemitic content of its broadcasts, which appear to be mostly religious. On 22 February the website of the nation-wide Moscow-based Radonezh radio station of the Russian Orthodox Church posted an interview with Deacon Andreii Kuraev in which he demanded the closure of all Jewish organizations and claimed that Jewish oligarchs, the West and President Vladimir Putin all exploit antisemitism.

In October the extremist newspaper Patriot published an article by MP Nikolaii Kondratenko (Communist Party), claiming that the Zionists rule Russia, control the media and nurture mistrust between Russians and Muslims in the country. The article was also published in Brianskaia Pravda, the newspaper of the Briansk branch of the Communist Party.

Russian antisemites were inspired by the extremist statements made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejihad in December 2005 (see Arab Countries). The RNE held a solidarity meeting outside the Iranian Embassy in Moscow to “condemn Israeli policies and world Jewry.” Muslim leaders in Russia, too, made antisemitic and anti-Zionist statements (see below). Leading Islamic websites traditionally equate Zionism with racism and Islam.ru always encloses the word ‘Israel’ in quotes. In response to Rabbi Berl Lazar’s call, following the terrorist attacks in London in July, for a war to destroy Islamic terrorists whom he condemned in the strongest terms, Mukaddas Bibarsov, chairman of the Volga Region Muslim Religious Board, accused the rabbi of inciting hatred against Muslims “following the worst of Nazi tradition.” Mufti Ismail Shangareev joined Mufti Bibarsov in these charges.

Sculptor Viacheslav Klykov’s aroused a furor in November when he built a monument in Belgorod dedicated to the victory of the medieval Russian Prince Sviatoslav over the Khazars in the late 10th century, with the prince depicted as trampling upon a Khazar warrior with a Star of David on his shield. (The Khazar royalty and nobility converted to Judaism, and part of the general Khazar population followed, in the late 8th century−early 9th century; however, the Star of David was not used at that time. The conflicts between the heathen Russia and the Khazars were later interpreted by antisemites as a fight against Judaism.) Ultimately, Klykov, known for his nationalistic views, removed the Star of David from the monument, under pressure from Jewish and non-Jewish organizations.

Antisemitic books are freely obtainable in stores and book kiosks in Russia. In early June a bookstore in Krasnodar was selling fascist and antisemitic literature, including books on the Third Reich, the SS, Heinrich Himmler, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and speeches of Rudolph Hess. In July an antisemitic book, The Jewish Question in Russia, by Oleg Platonov, went on sale at the book store of the Russian State Duma. The author claimed in the book that the Jews had always seen Russia as their main enemy. Platonov also wrote that Jews murder Christian children and have a negative influence on Russian culture. On 7 September the nationalist publisher Russkaia Pravda, which issued antisemitic and racist material (such as Mein Kampf, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and The Jewish Question) during 2005, participated in the 18th International Book Fair in Moscow. Mein Kampf, guidance booklets for young skinheads and fascist literature were on sale in Samara in October. On 3 November the Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia reported that Hitler’s Mein Kampf, as well as the Guide to Fascism, published in 2003, was freely available at the Maiak book market in Donetsk.

Several attacks on Jewish or Jewish-related websites were reported. Hackers associated with the Slavic Union attacked a number of websites, including Jewish.ru (Global Jewish Online Center) and the Jewish News Agency (AEN) site, adding Nazi symbols and a link to their own site, in June. On 21 April the official e-mail address of the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis, which monitors antisemitism and racism in Russia, was exploited by the Slavic Union to disseminate their own propaganda. The SOVA website was attacked by hackers on 3 May.

 

Responses to Antisemitism

Official response to antisemitic propaganda remained weak in Russia. Antisemitic pronouncements are so numerous that they are virtually routine, and therefore do not attract the attention of law enforcement authorities. Most requests to prosecutors by Jewish groups or other NGOs to open criminal investigations into such incidents are ignored and even if they are dealt with, they rarely reach the courts. Attacks and vandalism also often remain unpunished, with the rare exception of high profile cases, such as the above-mentioned attack on the two rabbis on 14 January.

Official responses to the ‘Letter of 500’ included statements by the Foreign Ministry, both houses of the Russian Parliament and many individual politicians. Although several MPs withdrew their signatures, the campaign continued, with some well-known personalities, such as former world chess champion Boris Spasskii, adding their names. For a year the Prosecutor’s Office refused to initiate criminal proceedings for incitement of hatred, and this failure to act sent a signal that such large-scale and explicit expressions of antisemitism were not illegal. The Rus’ Pravoslavnaia newspaper and website which published the ‘Letter of 500’ on 14 January was warned that its conduct was illegal, but it continues to issue antisemitic materials, including films from history archives, such as the Soviet production Taiinoye i Iavnoe (Hidden and Obvious) and the Nazi German one Der Ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew). President Putin condemned the letter only on 27 January while in Poland for the ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz – a speech directed mainly to an international audience rather than the Russian public.

Nonetheless, generally speaking, the year 2005 witnessed, for the first time in post-Soviet years, a considerable increase in convictions for dissemination of hate propaganda. A total of 13 offenders were found guilty under article 282 of the Criminal Code for this offense, six of whom were fined or given short prison terms. However, antisemitic materials were part of the hate propaganda in only a few cases.

In February, the Syktyvkar Federal Court handed down a one year probationary sentence to a student for publishing neo-Nazi, including antisemitic, propaganda on his website in 2002. On 9 December the Lenin Federal Court of St. Petersburg sentenced Dmitrii Bobrov, leader of the neo-Nazi skinhead group Schultz-88, to six years imprisonment for organizing an extremist and antisemitic organization. Three other members of the group received suspended sentences of three years each for taking part in the activity of an extremist organization.