Jewish heritage main obstacle to nominee for Russian premier

MOSCOW, April 13 (JTA) — Sergei Kiriyenko’s Jewish ancestry has become the main obstacle to his winning approval as Russia’s next prime minister. Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said this week that his party would continue to oppose Kiriyenko’s nomination because his father was Jewish. The Communists are the largest faction in the 450-seat Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, which rejected Kiriyenko’s nomination last Friday. President Boris Yeltsin quickly resubmitted Kiriyenko’s name for approval and another vote is expected Friday. The Communists and their leftist allies, who dominate the Duma, had initially said the 35-year-old Kiriyenko was too inexperienced to serve as premier. But after Kiriyenko said in an interview that his father was Jewish, the nominee’s heritage became the focus of the opposition. Last week, ultranationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky lashed out at Jews in an hourlong news conference during which he blamed Jews for starting World War II, provoking the Holocaust, sparking the 1917 Bolshevik revolution in Russia — and destroying the country ever since. “The essence of the conflict around the Jewish people is that when their number grows too much in a country, war breaks out there,” he said. Zhirinovsky’s Liberal Democratic Party is the third largest faction in the Duma. The verbal assault on Jews by opposition leaders continued this week when Zyuganov said in a live television interview Sunday that ethnic Russians make up 85 percent of the country’s population, but the government is “dominated” by minorities. It was unclear whether his remarks were directed exclusively at Jews. But given the prominence of some Jews in theYeltsin administration, it is unlikely that he was excluding Jews from his attack. Zyuganov called for “proportional representation” of various nationalities in the government and made it clear that one of the reasons why Kiriyenko could not win Communists’ approval was his Jewish heritage. Earlier this year, Zyuganov made similar remarks when he told a rally in Moscow that “one can seldom see a Russian face in the government.” Despite the strong opposition in the Duma, many observers think Kiriyenko has a good chance for approval because Yeltsin is unlikely to back down and offer another nominee — and lawmakers are unlikely to provoke new elections. Yeltsin has the power under the Russian Constitution to dissolve the Duma if his nominee is not approved. Meanwhile, anti-Semitic slogans appeared in several cities during nationwide protests held last week against wage arrears. Workers across Russia’s 11 time zones took to the streets April 9 to denounce government economic policies and demand payment of back wages. Protesters in several cities were reported to hold anti-Semitic placards. One such placard seen at a rally in St. Petersburg said, “We will always live in poverty under Jewish rule.” A St. Petersburg trade union leader was quoted in the press as saying that the participation of communists, nationalists and anti-Semitic organizations in the workers’ protest was “a normal thing.”