Jews Concerned Over Putin's Changes - September 2004

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Forward


Jewish Telegraphic Agency


Jewish Week

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Forward - 09.24.2004

Forward

Putin's Terror Crackdown Puts Activists in a Quandary 

By Nathaniel Popper

For Jewish communal leaders who came of age during the fight for the freedom of Soviet Jewry but who have now shifted their focus to the fight against Islamic terrorism, events in Russia last week presented a special dilemma.

After the hostage siege in the Russian town of Beslan, the Jewish community in the United States and abroad was quick to express solidarity with Russia's fight against terrorism. But when President Putin took steps a few days later to solidify his control over the government — and, many observers say, weaken the country's democratic structures — Jewish groups had a mixed response, pulled between the needs of creating an anti-terrorist alliance with Moscow and the push for more democratic progress within Russia. 

If the conflict in dealing with this new situation could be embodied in one man, it would be Natan Sharansky, Israel's minister for Diaspora affairs. 

Sharansky gained fame during the 1970s and 1980s as a refusenik in the Soviet Union who linked the cause of Jewish rights in the country to the universal struggle for human rights. Since moving to Israel, though, Sharansky has become increasingly identified with his hawkish views on fighting terrorism.

About Putin's moves last week, Sharansky said in an interview with the Forward: "I believe it is a mistake; always the right way to fight the terror is a physical fight without any concessions." But, Sharansky added, "I understand the difficult situation of Putin. He really was doing this that it would help to fight the terror."

Sharansky repeatedly said that if western countries were interested in pushing for democracy, the most important place to fight this battle was in the Middle East, not Russia — a different message than his pronouncements from jail. "The terror is the biggest challenge which is made by the road where the human life is not the highest value," Sharansky said with a familiar note of eloquence from the old jailhouse activist.

The Israeli government remained silent on Putin's proposals, and expressed its continuing solidarity with Russia. During an address in New York on Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said: "There's no difference between the attacks in Beersheva and Beslan. We should be united to win this battle." After the speech, when asked if he had discussed Putin's move during a meeting last week with the Russian foreign minister, Shalom offered a concise: "No."

Israel, though, has historically stayed out of campaigns for human rights in Russia. That cause has been the domain of the Soviet Jewry movement in America, which, during the last 30 years, helped produce many of the current leaders of the Jewish community.

While American Jewish organizations did sound a note of alarm at Putin's moves, their response was decidedly muted compared with the vigorous criticism that the community leveled against the Soviet Union during the 1970s and 1980s, when Russian Jews were trying to escape the country.

"It is a far more complicated situation than it was 20 years ago," said Mark Levin, the executive director of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, who has been a lifelong activist in the movement. "Jews living in Russia are living in a much better state than at any other time in the history of the country. The problem is that Jewish people don't live in a vacuum." 

Putin's controversial recommendations earlier this month included an end to elections for the 89 regional governors — who will now be handpicked by Putin — and an increasing centralization of national elections. These steps have not yet been put into effect, and there is no indication that the measures will have any unique impact on Russia's 400,000 remaining Jews. But human rights professionals said that the proposed changes would change life for all Russians. 

"It would be bad for civil society, for any citizens," said Ludmilla Alexeyva, president of the Moscow-Helsinki Group, a Russian human rights group that has monitored antisemitism in the country in partnership with Jewish groups. 

For a western world that has been torn apart by the conflict between democratic rights and fighting terrorism, the response in many countries has been mixed, with the Bush administration giving two conflicting responses to Putin's maneuvers on two consecutive days. 

There has been a similar ambivalence among Jewish organizations. Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said this week that he has been "concerned" for the last few years with the trend in Russia toward a greater centralization of the power in the Kremlin — a sentiment shared by Levin at the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. But, Hoenlein said, "we recognize the [Russian] concerns regarding terrorism, which affects not only Russia, but other countries, as well."

The Conference of Presidents and Levin's group will have a meeting with the Russian foreign minister later this week, and while they said they plan to bring up the issue of democracy in Russia, Levin said: "This will be one very important issue among many important issues." Among the other pressing concerns discussed will be Russia's involvement in Iran's development of nuclear facilities, which Israel opposes. 

The delicate response of Hoenlein and Levin's group was criticized by Yosef Abramowitz, president of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, which tracks human rights issues in the former Soviet Union. Abramowitz said the situation made it clear how the Jewish community's mechanisms for dealing with human rights issues in Russia have fallen into "disuse."

"The infrastructure of advocacy in Russia, outside [efforts to spur Jewish culture], has withered away," Abramowitz said. "The reality on the ground is that there has been a decade of this issue falling off the agenda in favor of other issues." 

In part, the slackening concern for Russia in the Jewish community has been a result of the sensitivity and concern that Putin has shown for the problem of antisemitism in his country.

A number of Russian Jews expressed trepidation last week not on the basis of their religion, but on larger concerns about Russian society.

"What is being proposed now will ultimately deal a severe blow to democracy in Russia," said Alexei Pruzhansky, a mathematician from Moscow.

A very different tone, however, came from the leadership of the Russian Jewish community. The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, Chabad-Lubavitch group known to have a close relationship with the Kremlin, did not comment on Putin's maneuvers but complimented his past attention to antisemitism. 

The leader of the Russian Jewish Congress, which has been in competition with the Chabad group for attention from the Kremlin, gave his outright support for Putin's moves. Evgeny Satanovsky, the president of the congress, compared Russia now to the United States and Great Britain during World War II.

"During a war, even the most democratic of states make a little minimization of democracy for part of the citizens," Satanovsky said. "Russia is at the beginning of the terrible war."

Israeli officials and Jewish groups, meanwhile, have been quick to link Russia's current situation to Israel's fight against terrorism, and in recent days Israeli and Russian officials have spoken about coordinating anti-terrorist efforts, The Associated Press reported.

But the similarity of the terrorist threat in Israel and Russia has been contested, particularly in Russia, where the government, many observers say, is being careful not to damage its ties with Arab nations. 

Even for observers who see the fight in Russia as part of a global war that includes Israel's battle against terrorism, though, there are larger questions about what relevance Putin's proposed changes will have on terrorism. 

Levin said that he was unsure if "moving in a less democratic way" offered "the best solution to the challenges that Russia is facing."

Sharansky said it was right to be concerned about Putin's maneuvers, but he said the critics should not get too carried away. 

"Today we have a country where a majority of people live without fear for expressing their views, where no private initiatives are restricted," Sharansky said. "We should not say that Russia is going back to the totalitarian state. That was a very different country."

With reporting from JTA.

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JTA - 09.15.2004

Russian Jews worry Putin proposals could send the country back in time 

By Lev Krichevsky 

MOSCOW (JTA) -- Many Russian Jews are worried that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian measures to crack down on terrorism may be deja vu all over again.

On Monday, Putin announced plans for a major overhaul of Russia’s electoral system, including elimination of popular elections for regional governors and a shift in the way Russians elect their Parliament — a measure likely to increase Putin’s already formidable power.

In his remarks to Cabinet members and regional governors, which were televised, Putin also called for the creation of a central, powerful antiterror agency.

But some are wondering whether the Russian president’s desire for a state more capable of fighting terror may turn Russia away from the democratic achievements of the last decade and revert back to the Communist or czarist eras.

“The big question now is whether a balance will be kept between counterterrorist measures and the observance of human rights,” said Alexander Brod, director of the Moscow Bureau on Human Rights, which is affiliated with the Washington-based Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union. 

Among the measures being proposed in the wake of the Sept. 3 tragedy at a school in Beslan in southern Russia, in which terrorists killed more than 300 people, are some that may ultimately limit the freedom of movement for Russians within their own country. 

In addition, Brod and other Jewish and human rights activists noted that the outbreak of terror in Russia has been followed by increased activity on the part of fringe nationalist and anti-Semitic groups.

The largest rally against terrorism, held near the Kremlin days after the siege in Beslan, was marred by the visible presence of anti-Semitic slogans and groups known for chauvinism against Chechens and other minorities, including Jews. 

Several anti-Semitic attacks, including the desecration of a Jewish cemetery in Siberia, were reported in the days following the recent spate of terrorism. 

“Terror seeks to split the society along ethnic lines, which ultimately sows the seeds of anti-Semitism,” said Rabbi Zinovy Kogan, leader of the Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Communities of Russia. 

Some ordinary Jews focused on Putin’s changes in a nation that has never been known as a haven for democracy. 

“What is being proposed now will ultimately deal a severe blow to democracy in Russia,” said Alexei Pruzhansky, a mathematician from Moscow. 

He was referring to Putin’s proposal to do away with popularly elected regional governors and parliamentary deputies. Currently, one-half of the 450-seat lower house, the Duma, is elected in a direct popular vote.

If approved by the Kremlin-controlled Parliament, Putin’s proposition would have all members of Parliament elected from party slates — a move that will further sideline opposition to the Kremlin.

At least one Russian Jewish official voiced his full support for whatever actions the Russian authorities take in their war on terrorism. 

“Helplessness. That’s the word to describe what makes so many people nervous today,” Yevgeny Satanovsky, the president of Russian Jewish Congress, told JTA. “Those who should have prevented the attack from happening failed to do this.”

Satanovsky told a Russian Jewish Congress conference on Monday, “Those who committed this barbarian act in Beslan are the same people who blow up buses in Israel, synagogues in Turkey, community centers in Argentina.”

For its part, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia was willing to comment only on the new order for appointing governors instead of electing them in a public election, not on Putin’s general treatment of the post-Beslan situation.

“As a Jewish community, organization we refrain from commenting on general political developments in the country,” said Borukh Gorin, a spokesman for the group. “At the same time, we must acknowledge that President Putin’s administration has taken a strong stand against any form of anti-Semitism, particularly from government officials. We hope and believe that this strong stand against any form of xenophobia and anti-Semitism will be a prerequisite for the appointment of the new governors."

But not everyone supports Putin’s moves.

“I have a feeling that the state is using Beslan as a pretext to introduce nearly unlimited presidential authority,” Pruzhansky said. 

Critics say this measure will eventually turn the Russian Parliament into a pawn of the president.

In addition to these sensational electoral proposals, Putin ordered a crackdown on extremist organizations.

Jewish leaders said they hope the definition of extremist organizations will include those radical groups that have made anti-Semitic propaganda the core of their activities. 

In addition to the political concerns, some Russian Jews are worried about the tone of societal discourse following the Beslan attack. 

“I cannot say I’m alarmed too much yet, but I understand where this can lead,” said Noson Vershubsky, a rabbi from the southern Russian city of Voronezh. 

“The nearly unanimous popular support that accompanies almost everything that the authorities propose these days creates a feeling of deja vu, as if this is taking place some 20 to 40 years ago,” said Vershubsky, who served a prison sentence for his religious activism during Soviet days.

Studying Hebrew and Torah were among the activities prohibited during much of the Soviet Union’s 70-year existence. 

Those Jews who still have memories of the Soviet-era KGB say they understand why many people have uneasy feelings when it comes to the issue of bringing special agencies to the forefront of fight against terror. 

“Those who have lived much of their lives in the Soviet Union know how the KGB operate, when all its strength was targeted against their own citizens,” said Adolph Shayevich, one of Russia’s two chief rabbis. 

“Our special organizations yet need to win a broad popular support, so that people can see they are fighting against terror, and not against those who tell jokes about our president,” Shayevich said. 

One American advocate for Jews in the former Soviet Union expressed similar concerns about the ascendance of these agencies.

“The fact that security agencies have more power and control is not good based on Jewish history,” said Mark Levin, the executive director of NCSJ: Advocates on Behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States and Eurasia. 

“We are all concerned when a terrorist event occurs like the one in Beslan. We stand shoulder to shoulder with the Russian people, but it’s unfortunate that the president would use this tragedy to do what appears to be a further consolidation of his power.”

Putin said Monday that he has ordered the security services to boost their cooperation with foreign intelligence agencies, a move that Jews here believe can bring about some closer working ties between Russia and Israel in fighting terrorism.

While Israeli experience with terrorism is routinely referred to in the Russian media these days, many were alarmed by a distinction made last week between Palestinians and Chechen separatists by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during his visit to Israel.

“The Russian political elite is still using double standards when it comes between the situation with terrorism in Israel and elsewhere,” said Mikhail Oshtrakh, a Jewish official from the city of Yekaterinburg. 

“But this new situation after Beslan has created a hope that the cooperation between Russian and Israeli special forces will finally take a new start.”

(JTA Foreign Editor Peter Ephross in New York contributed to this report.)

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Jewish Week - 09.17.2004

Jewish Week

Danger Ahead In Russia? 
 

By James D. Besser - Washington Correspondent

Russia, reeling from the devastating school takeover in Beslan, is lurching back toward authoritarian rule — and a U.S. administration with other priorities is playing scant attention. And that could spell trouble for the vulnerable Jewish minority in a country that seems to be retreating from its experiment in open democracy, Jewish leaders say. 

This week Russian President Vladimir Putin, reacting with fury to a terrorism surge that also included the downing of two Russian airliners by suspected Chechen terrorists, announced sweeping changes to a political system that critics say was already tilting toward authoritarian rule. 

The changes would give Putin control over the selection of regional leaders and modify the process of electing members to the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. The overhaul is needed to unify the country for the war on terror, Putin claimed in announcing the changes. 

But Jewish leaders are worried about the consolidation of power in Putin’s hands. 

“In the short run, nothing changes for the Russian Jewish community,” said Mark Levin, executive director of NCSJ, a leading Soviet Jewry group. “But long-term, the consequences will be great. We’re seeing a further expansion of authoritarianism in Russia, and that’s not good for Russian Jews or for any other minority.” 

The Bush administration has not pressed Putin to keep the country on a democratic course. 

“The administration is looking to Russia on a number of issues, including the fight against terrorism,” Levin said. “The Russians are saying they are reacting in the same way America has reacted since 9-11. And this has limited the administration’s options.” 

Administration officials have conspicuously declined to criticize the Russian president. 

Another change in Russia could have more positive consequences: the development of Russian-Israeli ties around the issue of terrorism. 

Recently, Israeli intelligence offers traveled to Russia to offer technical support to Russian forces, according to wire service reports. 

Two weeks ago, Russia and Israel signed an agreement to increase joint efforts in the anti-terror fight; there has been direct contact between Putin and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on the subject. 

“We’re at the beginning of an intensified effort to cooperate on areas of terrorism, and that could have broader political consequences,” said Jess Hordes, Washington director for the Anti-Defamation League. “But nobody know what the impact of that will be.” 

Israeli officials hope the new ties between the two countries could influence Russia’s position on Israel’s security fence — and on Russia’s involvement in Iran’s nuclear program.