Post-Summit Violence - 05.28.2002

 

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PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Shai Franklin (202-898-2500)

NCSJ Denounces Post-Summit Violence

NCSJ has denounced two anti-Semitic incidents in the Moscow area, one yesterday and one earlier today, in which two young people were injured, one seriously.  One woman lost an eye in an explosion on the outskirts of Moscow, and a young Orthodox Jewish man was beaten by skinheads in downtown Moscow.

"While we are pleased that – as Interfax reports – Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov said he would take the bombing case under his personal control," NCSJ Chairman Harold Paul Luks said, "we are gravely concerned that Ms. Sapunova recover as quickly and fully as possible and that such vicious attacks are prevented in the future.  We will continue to work with community leaders, and with the U.S. and Russian governments, to achieve this goal."

"The important meetings by President George W. Bush with leaders of the major Russian Jewish organizations reinforced the importance of pluralism and the progress in combating extremism as partners with the Russian people," NCSJ President Robert J. Meth said.  "These two attacks, coming on the heels of the President’s historic visit, challenge us and remind us that our work is far from completed."

Yesterday, Tatiana Sapunova, a young Russian woman, sustained serious injuries and lost an eye while attempting to remove a booby-trapped poster calling for the murder of Jews, on a roadside near Moscow.  Russian Jewish Congress President Yevgeny Satanovsky, whose organization is assisting Ms. Sapunova and her family, has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian government, community organizations, the mass media and all citizens of Russia "to recognize the threat of anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism – and to do everything possible to stop terror."

Earlier today, Yakov Vershubsky, the 15-year-old son of a Voronezh rabbi, was attacked by two skinheads in downtown Moscow.  Mr. Vershubsky was on his way to the Moscow Choral Synagogue to attend morning prayers.  Dressed in easily-recognizable Orthodox Jewish dress, Mr. Vershubsky tried to defend himself from the attackers who were using their bare fists.  According to representatives of the Moscow Jewish Community, the young man has a severely broken nose but is, thankfully, not in serious condition.

According to Satanovsky, who met with President Bush in Moscow as well as St. Petersburg during the President’s recent Russia visit, "We have warned of the blending of anti-Israel terrorist organizations and Neo Nazism throughout the world – and we warned against placid confidence that this is all going on some place else and has nothing to do with Russia.  Had the mass media paid more attention to this issue a month ago, had the authorities taken seriously the threat of anti-Semitic terror on Russian territory, and had the Duma not stalled on adopting President Putin’s proposed legislation against political extremism, this crime may have been avoided."

NCSJ: Advocates on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia – a voluntary, not-for-profit agency created in 1971, is the mandated central coordinating agency of the organized American Jewish community for policy and activities on behalf of the estimated 1.5 million Jews in the former Soviet Union. NCSJ comprises nearly 50 national organizations and over 300 local federations, community councils and committees across the United States. Through this extensive network, NCSJ mobilizes the resources, energies and talents of millions of U.S. citizens, and also represents the American Jewish community in dealings with similar national groups abroad, and at international fora.

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

JUSTICE MINISTER CONDEMNS ANTI-SEMITIC EXPLOSION. Justice Minister Yurii Chaika called the 27 May explosion of an anti-Semitic booby trap near Moscow that caused a young woman to lose an eye (see "RFE/RL Newsline" 28 May 2002) an "extremist act that must be severly punished," Russian news agencies reported on 28 May. Chaika also called on the State Duma to immediately adopt a law on extremism.

The Israeli Embassy in Moscow expressed its "indignation at the anti-Semitic incident" and said that it hopes the Russian authorities will make every effort to identify and punish the perpetrators. The embassy added that it will monitor the investigation closely.  - Victor Yasmann

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Incident with Booby-Trapped Sign
Spurs New Call for Action in Russia

MOSCOW, June 2  — An incident in which a woman was severely injured after she tried to take down a booby-trapped anti-Semitic sign has shocked Russian Jews — and led to calls for law enforcement officials to take greater steps to curb extremism.

The May 27 incident, in which Tatyana Sapunova was badly burned and lost sight in an eye, “shows that with all this blah-blah-blah at the top about the freedom of the Jews, neo-Nazis are beginning to feel no less free — not only to write or yell anti-Jewish insults, but to kill,” Natasha Sliozberg, a Moscow high school teacher and a Jewish activist, told JTA.

The incident comes amid evidence of other extremist activity in Russia.

Last week, a neo-Nazi organized an “initiation night” in a forest near Moscow.

Hundreds of skinheads were reportedly gathered around bonfires holding burning torches and yelling: “Death to people from the Caucasus and Kikes,” “Russia for the Russians” and “Sieg Heil.”

Sapunova, a 28-year-old biophysicist, was driving her 4-year-old daughter and her mother a few miles from Moscow when she noticed a sign “Death to Kikes” hanging from a pole near the road.

She pulled over, walked to the sign and began to take it down. The sign, rigged with dynamite, blew up in her face, injuring not only Sapunova, but also her 55-year-old mother, Yelena.

The two victims do not identify themselves as Jews, althought one of Sapunova’s grandfathers was Jewish.

But both have been close to the Jewish community. Sapunova’s mother had worked for a foundation for blind Jews.

“Tatyana is strong, and, at the same time, a very well-meaning and ready-to-help person,” Galina Yevtushenko, who heads the foundation, told JTA. “She just could not have acted otherwise.”

Rabbi Berel Lazar, one of Russia’s two chief rabbis, visited Sapunova in the hospital and promised that the Jewish community will pay her medical bills and if needed, send her to Israel for medical treatment.

According to a Russian security source, the blast was intended for Lazar himself.

The bomb was planted shortly before Lazar was scheduled to pass by the sign on the way back from the airport after meeting with President Bush in St. Petersburg, according to the source in Russia’s Federal Security Bureau.

But Lazar’s plane was late, and it was dark when he and his aides passed the sign, according to the source.

Russian and U.S. Jewish groups reacted to the incident by blasting Russian law enforcement agencies.

The Anti-Defamation League’s Moscow office director, Alexander Axelrod, issued a statement saying the incident was the inevitable result of the authorities’ refusal to crack down on hate crimes in Russia.

“Russian anti-Semitism has moved on to a new level — from anti-Semitic newspapers and swastikas on the walls to organized violence and terrorism,” Axelrod told JTA.

Yevgeny Satanovsky, president of the Russian Jewish Congress, also faulted Russian officials.

“Had the authorities taken seriously the threat of anti-Semitic terror on Russian territory, and had the Duma not stalled on adopting President Putin’s proposed legislation against political extremism, this crime may have been avoided,” said Satanovsky, who also criticized public indifference to the issue.

At least one Russian legislator, Pavel Krasheninnikov, agrees with Jewish leaders.

Krasheninnikov reacted to news of the booby-trapped sign by saying an anti-extremism bill should be passed before the current legislative session ends in July.

“We are behind Europe on this by 50 years,” he said.