By Itar-Tass
MOSCOW, Russia - The State Duma will give on Thursday an appraisal to the anti-Semitic motion by a group of legislators from the factions of Rodina and the Russian Communist Party. The agenda of the chamber’s meeting includes an item on debating a draft statement by the State Duma, assessing an address by 19 deputies to the Russian Prosecutor- General’s Office, demanding that “ a case on prohibition in our country of all religious and nationalist Jewish associations as extremist should be officially instituted”.
The address was published in the newspaper Rus Pravoslavnaya (Orthodox Russia) last January. It was signed by 13 members of the Rodina faction, including Alexander Krutov, Sergei Glotov, Nikolai Pavlov, Igor Rodionov, Andrei Savelyev and six members of the Communist Party faction, including Nikolai Kondratenko and Albert Makashov. The letter claimed, inter alia, that “the Jewish religion is anti-Christian, misanthropic, going to an extent of ritual murders”.
They withdrew their address some time later. However, it provoked a broad response both in Russia and the world over. The Israeli embassy addressed a statement to Russian authorities on this occasion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at the forum “Let My People Live” on January 27, devoted to the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, admitted that he was ashamed of manifestations of anti-Semitism and xenophobia in Russia.
“The German chancellor said quite recently that he is ashamed of the past, but it was the past, while we should be ashamed of nowadays, since we now often see manifestations of this ailment, even in Russia which had done more than others for the victory over fascism and for the liberation of Jews,” the Russian leader said.
Chief Russian rabbi Berl Lazar thanked the president for these words which, in his opinion, “were the response to the events of the past month, including the latest absurd statement by some deputies”. ( the Chief Rabbi also sent strong letters of condemnation to the Speaker of the Duma and the heads of the Communist and Rodina parties)
The Russian Foreign Ministry made a statement where it called the address by deputy “blatant anti-Semitism” and emphasized that it has nothing to do with the general position of the Russian leadership.
Most State Duma deputies also opposed the motion by the 19 legislators. Speaker of the State Duma Boris Gryzlov called the address to the Prosecutor-General’s Office “outrageous”. Chairman of the Duma International Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev stressed in an interview with Tass that deputies intend to give a political appraisal to this “vicious anti-Semitic statement, subject to articles of the Criminal code."
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