MOSCOW, Feb. 24 (JTA) — The leader of Russia’s Communist Party
is stirring up racist sentiments. “One can seldom see a Russian face in the government,” Gennady Zyuganov told a rally in downtown Moscow, where some 15,000 people gathered this week to mark the 80th anniversary of the creation of the Red Army. It was unclear whether his attempt to distinguish between ethnic Russians and minorities living within the country was directed exclusively at Jews. But given the prominence of some Jews in the Yeltsin administration, it is difficult to imagine that he was excluding Jews from his attack. Zyuganov, who placed second to Yeltsin in the 1996 presidential elections, recently called for policies to revive the power and prestige of ethnic Russians. Zyuganov told the rally that the opposition will take to the streets in April or May to “force the regime to resign.” He also called on his supporters to hold a nationwide protest April 9 against Yeltsin.
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