Russian lawmaker delivers speech interpreted as call to launch pogroms

MOSCOW, Feb. 24 (JTA) — Is a Russian lawmaker who is seeking to become the country’s next president calling for pogroms against Jews? Albert Makashov, the hard-line Communist legislator whose repeated anti- Semitic statements have sparked controversy, said in a speech Monday that there are “good Jews” and “bad Jews” and that those whom the nationalists consider good “will continue to live,” while the bad “will have a hard time.” The speech in Novocherkassk, a largely Cossack mining town in southern Russia, drew widespread media coverage in Russia. Speaking at a conference sponsored by a nationalist group known as the Movement in Support of the Army, Makashov told the audience: “Jews are brave. They are so brave because we are sleeping, because none of us has yet knocked on their door.” He also suggested the group, of which he is a leader, should change its name to the Movement Against Yids. Makashov, who recently announced he will make a bid for the Russian presidency when elections are held next year, was greeted with thunderous applause by the approximately 2,000 audience members. On Wednesday, the Kommersant Daily, Russia’s leading business newspaper, ran a front-page article under the headline, “Pogroms Are Not Far Off.” Another daily newspaper, Novye Izvestya, offered a similar reaction. Jewish leaders, meanwhile, are urging law-enforcement agencies to take measures against Makashov. “The inactivity of the authorities gives rise to serious doubts” whether they are going to stop the anti-Semitic campaign launched by Makashov, said Alexander Osovtsov, executive vice president of the Russian Jewish Congress. Just the same, he disagreed with the newspaper assessments that the remarks would prompt open violence against Jews. “Makashov has not yet reached the level of influence that would allow his calls to be put into practice,” Osovtsov said. Mikhail Gelfer, head of the Jewish community in the Rostov region, where Makashov spoke, said members of his community were “horrified” by the speech. He, too, discounted the likelihood of pogroms — but did feel that the speech could lead to an increase in anti-Semitic incidents. Very few members of the region’s Communist-dominated administration and numerous Cossack groups share Makashov’s views, Gelfer said. Makashov announced recently that he would split from the Communists and run under the banner of the Movement in Support of the Army in parliamentary elections that are slated for December. He said he would use that position as a base from which to run for the presidency next year. Makashov is now co-leader of the movement along with Viktor Ilyukhin, another lawmaker who split off from the Communists to join the movement. Ilyukhin, who attended Monday’s speech, gained notoriety last December by blaming Russia’s ongoing economic crisis on the Jews. Several media observers believe that their “defection” from the Communist Party was part of a carefully thought-out campaign by the party to attract ultranationalist segments of society who would not otherwise support the Communists. This is particularly true with respect to the Cossacks, many of whom are anti-Communist. Most members of this ethnic group in Russia and Ukraine share family stories about the large-scale repressions that Communists waged against the Cossacks in the 1920s and 1930s. Last month, prosecutors launched a criminal investigation of Makashov for his anti-Semitic statements, but scant progress has been reported.