New York Jewish Week - 03.30.2007

The Jewish Week

‘Part Of The Problem’

At UJA-Federation event, Kazakh Jewish leader accuses Putin of contributing to xenophobia.

By Walter Ruby

One of the most prominent Jews in the Former Soviet Union has accused the regime of President Vladimir Putin of contributing to xenophobia against minority groups in Russia and thereby endangering Jews in that country.

“There is a powerful wave of nationalism and xenophobia in Russia and the regime [of President Putin] is part of the problem, not part of the solution,” said Alexander Mashkevich, president of the Kazakhstan-based Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC), in an interview with The Jewish Week here. The EAJC is a regional body affiliated with the World Jewish Congress, with representation from all the Jewish communities of the former Soviet Union, as well as those of such countries as Poland, Bulgaria, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore and India.

“If the Russian government is kicking Georgians and Azeris out of the country today, what might happen to other minorities tomorrow?” Mashkevich asked, referring to the fact that hundreds of Georgians were expelled from Moscow last year, apparently in retaliation for actions by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili that Russia considered unfriendly. Mashkevich stated, “We must speak out now — not only against anti-Semitism, which we carefully monitor in all the countries of the FSU, but against nationalism and xenophobia in general, in order to prevent the situation from deteriorating further.” Mashkevich said he is “determined to share [his] concern about rising xenophobia in Russia with the American Jewish community and the U.S. government.”

Mashkevich, 53, was in New York to receive the first-ever Global Leadership Award at the UJA-Federation of New York’s Russian Division Annual Gala. Feted at the March 25 event by Sen. Charles Schumer, UJA-Federation CEO John Ruskay, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Executive Vice President Malcolm Hoenlein and Rabbi Arthur Schneier of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, the Russian Division event also honored Gene Rachmansky, a Manhattan attorney who was one of the founders of the Russian Division’s Young Leadership group. It raised $500,000 for UJA-Federation’s annual campaign.

“We consider such statements of Mr. Machkevitch absurd and being far from the reality,” said Vladimir Khlebnikov, a spokesman for the Russian Consulate in New York. “The measures which the Russian government undertakes in its fight against illegal immigration strictly correspond with the national and international law. These actions are not aimed against any particular nationality or ethnic group and are very similar to those which are undertaken by the U.S. government in its struggle against illegal immigration.”

An academic in Kyrgyzstan in Soviet times who went into the business world in the late 1980s and eventually became one of the three co-owners of Eurasia Group, a Kazakhstan-based company with interests in aluminum, chromium, coal, construction and banking, Mashkevich is worth an estimated $2 billion, according to the 2006 Forbes survey of the world’s billionaires. A close confidante of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazerbayev, Mashkevich also holds Israeli citizenship, and spends much of his time airborne between Israel, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine and other countries where he has either business interests or involvement in Jewish life.

In an interview with The Jewish Week, Mashkevich — a tall balding man with a mustache and an affable and unpretentious manner — confirmed his reputation as perhaps the most liberal of the Russian-Jewish oligarchs on a variety of religious and political issues. Mashkevich, who has sponsored several high-level Muslim-Jewish dialogues in the Kazakh capital of Astana under the patronage of Nazerbayev, a Muslim, said he “totally disagrees” with what he characterized as the position of Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman that “Israel and the West are in a ‘war of civilizations’ with the Islamic world. I oppose that way of looking at the world because I believe it only plays into the hands of a small group of Islamic radicals. In reality those radicals are unrepresentative of the majority of Muslims, who have nothing against the Jews or the West. So we need to do much more to further dialogue between Jews and Muslims.”

Since its founding in 2003, EAJC has had an uneasy relationship with the Federation of Russian Jewry (FEOR), a Chabad-Lubavitch-affiliated body that is the most powerful Jewish umbrella organization in Russia and whose leading figure, Rabbi Berel Lazar, is recognized by the Putin government as Russia’s chief rabbi. Mashkevich said that while he “is very grateful for the magnificent work Chabad does all over the FSU, I oppose a monopoly on Judaism by Chabad or any other group. I think all trends within Judaism should have freedom to flourish in the FSU, including the Reform movement.”

While not directly criticizing the FEOR and another umbrella body, the Russian Jewish Congress (RJC), for being generally supportive of the policies of the Putin government, Mashkevich suggested that they, unlike the EAJC, have been intimidated from taking assertive stands against the Russian government when it moved in directions inimical to Jewish interests. “The EAJC can say things that FEOR cannot, because they live in Russia, whereas I am in Kazakhstan. For example, we strongly supported Israel in last summer’s Lebanon war, but FEOR and RJC were unable to do so. They always have to remember where they are living.”

Asked about a speech Putin made last month in Munich in which he denounced the United States for allegedly seeking to “establish a unipolar world” under its hegemony, Mashkevich said, “It is well known that Russia is striving these days to become a world center of gravity. In my view, all major partners in the world should respect each other.” For his part, Machkevitch believes that “the role the United States and American Jewry have played in rebuilding FSU Jewry has been immense. We will never be able to repay the support we got from UJA-Federation and other American Jewish organizations going back to Soviet times. Nevertheless, today, when Jews in the FSU have more resources, we seek to build a more equal partnership with American and world Jewry than existed before.” 

Mashkevich said that the EAJC operates from the principle that “happy Jewish communities only exist in happy countries. Therefore, we stand up for the rights of all citizens, including Jews, and fight all forms of xenophobia, not only anti-Semitism.” 

Noting that in Moscow and Kiev “it is possible to buy the most aggressive forms of anti-Semitic literature,” Mashkevich said, “that should not be permitted and, in fact, is not permitted in Kazakhstan, where all forms of ethnic incitement are prohibited.”

Mashkevich seemed more concerned about the rise of ultra-nationalism and xenophobia in Russia and other FSU countries than about infringements on democracy in those countries, perhaps not surprising given that his patron, Nazerbayev, is widely considered to be an authoritarian figure, who has been accused by groups like Human Rights Watch of holding flawed elections and arbitrarily jailing and sometimes torturing opposition figures. Asked about this, Mashkevich smiled broadly and said in an ironic tone that “Kazakhstan is the most democratic of the so-called ‘Oriental democracies,’” a reference to the states of former Soviet Central Asia. 

Mashkevich was praised during the UJA-Federation dinner by Hoenlein, who called the EAJC leader “a friend and partner with whom we have worked on behalf of the Jews of many lands. [Mashkevich] turned the reversal of the Iron Curtain to the benefit of Jewish community.” Mark Levin, executive director of NCSJ (formerly the National Conference on Soviet Jewry), said of Mashkevich: “He is a visible and vocal advocate on behalf of Jewish populations throughout the FSU and a promoter of greater tolerance and understanding among different religious and ethnic groups.”

Levin added, “We certainly share Mashkevich’s concerns about the rise of nationalism and xenophobia in Russia.” 

Levin said his group has been assured by Russian government officials that they oppose trends toward ultra-nationalism, but added, “We want to see more concrete actions by the government; a combination of law enforcement and education. Right now the Russian government has a very serious problem.”