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The attributing of hostile and dangerous attitudes towards other nations, races and religions to the Jews
1. “Blood libel” in Russia in the 21st century: official publications, school lectures, materials in the media and in the internet;
2. New accusation: Jews as “culprits” of the Great Famine and the Khatyn tragedy;
3. “Jewish Mafia” and the secret Jewish government of Russia.
1. In the beginning of the 21st century, Russia remains almost the only European country where websites, publications and mass media openly spread the “blood libel” – accusations of the Jews of the ritual murder of Christians. In 2008, this medieval superstition was for the first time reflected even in official publications and university lectures.
Thus, in fall of 2008, the All-Russia Institute for Advanced Studies of the Interior Ministry of Russia and its Inter-Departmental Center for Training and Retraining of Specialists in Combating Terrorism and Extremism published a brochure by E. Gerasimenko on “Extremism: the Concept of Socioeconomic, Political and Historical Reasons of this Phenomenon and Its Trends. Lecture.” One section of the booklet is devoted to Satanism. It contains the following statement, “Satanism, like Hasidism, grew out of Judaism, its secret kabalistic and monstrous sects. Until the 18th century it was developing as a secret Jewish sect and then became an offshoot of Judaism and one of the most influential currents of Freemasonry. The core of ritual satanic sects, just like in the previous monstrous secret Jewish sects, was the blood rites.”
This paragraph is in sharp contrast with the text of the publication. The author clearly borrowed it from some anti-Semitic “para-Orthodoxo” source. It is unclear whether Gerasimenko realized how anti-Semitic this passage sounds. Meanwhile, this publication is dangerous: after all, its information will serve as a reference tool and a guide for the staff of departments specializing in fighting against terrorism and extremism in the Interior Ministry of Russia (this is specifically indicated in the annotations to the book).
In April 2008, Svetlana Shestakova, assistant professor of social work of the Institute of Human Sciences at the Tyumen State Oil and Gas University delivered a lecture in the course of “Fundamentals of Religious Culture.” This course is read at the Department of Religious Studies Institute of Humanities of the Tyumen Oil and Gas University to students who want to teach in schools. Svetlana Shestakova is a member of the Missionary Department of the Tyumen-Tobolsk Parish of the Russian Orthodox Church. Talking about Judaism, Shestakova said that Matzo “contains in small quantities the blood of Orthodox people, who died as martyrs”. According to the lecturer, the Jews are stealing children, drain them of blood and collected this blood in pieces of clothes, then these clothes are burned and the ashes are sprinkled upon dead people or added in matzo.
She also accused Jews of the ritual murder of the family of Nicholas II: “…They were stabbed repeatedly, because [the Jews] need a living man stabbed and bleeding until he dies while suffering. That’s how they tortured Prince Alexei before the eyes of his parents, then they killed the czar and his wife. Shestakova’s husband – K. Shestakov – said that “babies regularly disappear in our region; for instance, here in Krasnoyarsk was another disappearance recently…” In addition, he noted that in “Beilis’s Case” Beilis was justified only because the jury was intimidated by the Jews. Moreover, after the overthrow of the autocracy all the jurors were killed. In June 2008, the decoding of the lecture was published at the Slavic Legal Center, which caused an acute reaction from the FJCR. In response, Shestakov published an article on his website. He wrote that all was said by his wife (including charges of ritual murder) “was part of the teachings and the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church, part of the Orthodox tradition.” At the same time some media reports indicate that Shestakov enjoys the patronage of the Bishop of Tobolsk and Tyumen Dimitri, brother of Metropolitan Kliment (Kapalin), who is the manager of the Patriarchate.
The burst of “ritual” charges may have been caused by the 90th anniversary of the death of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, because anti-Semites claim that this murder was another “ritual”. In his article "Tsar the Winner” published on May 20 on the “New Chronicle” website, para-Orthodox Church radical nationalist E. Kholmogorov argued that the ritual murder of the royal family was a fact: "The ritual nature of the Yekaterinburg murders can cause doubts only in fools or scoundrels”.
On May 27, the Agency’ of Political News published another article by E. Kholmogorov "Tsar of the Past and Future. Nicholas II and Russian Agiopolitics”. It stated that the murder on July 17, 1918, was a “Kabalistic ritual”.
The “New Petersburg” newspaper published an article on June 25 headlined “General Rodionov – a Real Candidate!” It speaks of alleged ritual murders in Krasnoyarsk in 2005-2007. It also promoted and reproduced the speech of one of the nationalist leaders - former Minister of Defense I. Rodionov, densely peppered with anti-Semitic passages.
Nazarov’s website published a report on June 2008 about the murder in April 2008 in Zlatoust (Chelyabinsk Region) of two girls with clear reference to the fact that this was ritual murder. As “proof” Nazarov quoted the finding of stab knife wounds on the corpses and the presence of the Jewish community in Chelyabinsk.
Two more materials in support of the “ritual” version of the murder of the last Tsar appeared at rusidea.org – a website owned by Nazarov – on November 2008. The first material, “ The Secret of Tsar Relics in Russian Emigration” speaks of the fate of the remains of the family of Nicholas II, strongly supporting the myth of “ritual murder” of the tsarist family, the “useful idiot” Hitler, who was prepared by the “Jewish banks in Wall Street" to “start the war and eliminate all of the European fascism with the Slavic blood”. In his other article, the author tried to “prove” that investigator Sokolov who was conducting investigation of the murder of the family of Nicholas II allegedly admitted ritual murder of the tsarist family as the main version, although either Sokolov's book which was published after his death nor the published material evidence show such confessions. The absence of information about the ritual murder in the book is explained with the evil intent of its publishers.
On March 19, leaflets were posted in Novosibirsk calling for parents to protect their children on the eve of Passover because “the Jews need the blood of children to bake matzo”. The leaflet contained the accusation of the Jews that they “steal small children, pump out their blood and use this blood for their holy food – matzo, then throw the corpses away.”
2. Nazarov’s website rusidea.org on January 2008 published an article by former dissident Vladimir Osipov “Russia’s Enemies Call Russian Genocide of the Great Ukrainians Famine”. It argued that the organizers of the Great Famine of 1932–1933 were the Jews who made up “the top leadership of the CPSU (b)”. But the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko is afraid to blame them for the Famine because the “United States being the citadel and the cudgel of international Zionism will beat Yushchenko up so much in the case of such Anti-Semitic statements that he would not stay in his presidential chair.” Then Osipov distributed the responsibility for the Famine between the Jews, the Poles and the Baltic countries. On January 3, speaking at a meeting of the Union of Russian people in Moscow, Osipov said that anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia were the result of the “Nazi ideology” of Shulchan Aruch and the exploitation of the local population by the Kagal” or were provoked by the revolutionaries, “to introduce Russia as a country of obscurantists and anti-Semites” and unite against her all the “civilized” countries in the upcoming revolution.”
The InoSMI.ru website (which usually publishes translations of articles from international mass media) published on February 22 a specially written article of Jewish anti-Semite I. Shamir and Polish author M. Glogochovski “Adding Insult to Injury: Khatyn”, which asserted that the executions in Khatyn were allegedly committed by the Jews who served in the NKVD and were “seized by the striving for revenge” for the pogroms during the Civil War.
3. On May 25, the website of the Movement against Illegal Immigration placed a note of the Russian Jewish Congress in protests against the publication of a list of “enemies of the Russian people”. It emphasized that the note had no arguments of the lack of such hostile attitude.
Colonel Vladimir Kvachkov who was accused of an attempt on the life of Anatoly Chubais stated that Russia seemed to be “occupied by the Jewish mafia, which becomes a matrix for other criminal groups in Russia”, and quoted the anti-Semitic myth that the Jews had seized power in Russia.
In June 2008, one of the xenophobic websites published statements at the court by leaders of the Amur Department of the Union of Russian people Sychev, Terekhov and Smirnov, quoting anti-Semitic myths about the secret Jewish government, about the Jews making Russians drink vodka all the time and how the Jews steal the “raw natural resources which have been developed and protected by blood and sweat of the Russian people”.
Arguments about the “Jewish mafia” and the “secret Jewish government” are not new, but repeated with enviable regularity, having unfortunately, found their own audience.
Denial or revision of the significance of the Holocaust, rehabilitation of the Nazism
1. Subject of the Holocaust in school textbooks
2. The problem of Holocaust denial in today’s Russia
3. Attempts at rehabilitating Hitler and Russian supporters of the Nazism
4. Spreading of the Nazi symbols
1. In February 2008, a study of school textbooks was published, conducted on the initiative of the Russian Jewish Congress by the expert group of historians led by Alexander Lokshin. It shows that in Russia’s school textbooks, Holocaust is often kept silent. It is more dangerous than “creations” of anti-Semitic publicists: textbooks, in contrast to the writings of radical nationalists, and read almost by everyone. The lack of information about this tragedy of the Jewish people in school textbooks makes the Holocaust nonexistent in the eyes of the majority of people.
2. In 2008, several attempts were made to deny or diminish the significance of the Holocaust, or to rehabilitate the Nazi collaborators. It should also be noted that for the nationalists themselves the denial of the Holocaust is an old topic.
On January 31, President of the Orthodox Brotherhood “Radonezh”, Eugene Nikiforov, told the “ Russian Line” nationalist Internet agency that he was surprised about teaching of the Holocaust in Russia’s schools. In his opinion, Russia should learn about “the Russian Holocaust” – that’s how radical nationalists describe the terror of 1917– 953, believing that it was directed solely against the Russians by the Jews. On February 4, a comment followed from the Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia, “Mr. Nikiforov forgets the fact that the vast majority of Jews who perished in the Holocaust were citizens of the USSR, and the tragedy unfolded in our country. It is about the death of our fellow citizens that we speak. Besides, the Holocaust is not only the history of persecutions and misfortunes of the Jewish people, but also of unprecedented in the history of mankind genocide of people whose guilt was only in belonging to the Jewish nation. Comparing the Holocaust to the repressions in any other country at any other time is illiterate. The meaning of the Holocaust is that the a priori fault of babies and of old men was in their national background – people were exterminated just for this reason. Public of many countries clearly need to study the history of the Holocaust in order to never repeat such monstrous persecution of people based on religious or ethnic grounds. Any suggestion that this should not be done is nothing more than revisionist. We sincerely regret that a man called to help people understand what is good and what is evil, sees no difference in such momentous events...”
On February 5, “Radonezh” published its response to the criticism. The central thesis of it was the assertion that the singling of the Jews out of the victims of Nazism “is incorrect even from the practical point of view.” This statement repeats almost verbatim the arguments of the Soviet authorities. They spoke on the destruction of “peaceful Soviet citizens” and relentlessly failed to notice that only one category of people – Jews – were destroyed en masse, regardless of gender, age and attitude to the occupation authorities. There were also allegations that the repressions of the 1920 – 1930 were analogous to the Holocaust, because these prosecutions were allegedly carried out by the Jews against the Russians on ethnic and religious grounds (Nazarov’s website, February 2008).
He also issued a special statement in which he wrote that the Holocaust Remembrance Day is a “celebration of the triumph of the world Jewry,” who are ostensibly collecting “financial, political and spiritual reparations” from the world (meaning “tolerance to Satanist Talmudism”). In contrast to the Holocaust Remembrance Day Nazarov proposes celebrating the Feast of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, who were allegedly “murdered in the aggressive occupationist war of the Bolshevik kikes against Russia and in the ensuing victorious Holocaust of the Russian Orthodox people.” At the same time, he blames the Jews for creating a kind of “religion of the Holocaust”. It is “a cunning parasite on human kindness of the non-Jewish people”, he claims. He also repeats the clichés of West-European Holocaust deniers “that Jews themselves went to war and exaggerated the number of their victims in order to exploit these victims for their own political ends”.
The article of nationalist Savelyeva published on May 9 and dedicated to Victory Day stated that the Holocaust was “turned by a narrow group of the Jewish public into permanent means of falsification of history and their own private gesheft.” At the same time, Saveliev stated that “the Communist and the liberal doctrines are not able to resist the fascism,” while the doctrine of fascism was far from the actual practices of the Nazi Germany.
Several materials, where Holocaust denial was the main or one of the main themes was published in November 2008 by nationalist activist K. Krylov. On November 18, a new entry appeared in his blog on the Ukrainian Famine. Krylov accused the Jews of lies and slander: “To declare oneself a victim, exclusively oneself, and to deny oneself nothing, denigrating their own victims, calling them “executioners”. The Albanians of Kosovo and Ukrainians “borrowed” this technology, according to Krylov, from the Jews. In another entry, dated November 30, Krylov, wrote that “all the books about the Holocaust are factious”, alluding to the alleged inherent unreliability in the description of facts in them. In an article published in November 2008 on the APN.ru website where Krylov is editor-in-chief, he declared that the Holocaust is used for selfish purposes in order to “cut off” as much as possible from all other nations.
3. One of the prominent activists of the Movement against Illegal Immigration, Mikhailov, in an interview published in April 2008 on the DPNI website, said that Nazism “met the needs of the people, offered its solutions to their problems, and therefore, was supported.” He expressed indignation at the “frenzy” around Hitler. This “frenzy,” according to Mikhailov, has been the rejection of attempts to find any positive traits in the Nazi Fuhrer.
Significant efforts in 2008 were aimed at rehabilitation of the Nazi Russian accomplices. The most notable was the attempt by the Ataman of the Don Cossacks, State Duma deputy from the United Russia, V. Vodolatsky, in January 2008, to raise the issue of rehabilitation of Ataman Krasnov, who served Hitler during the war. Perhaps Vodolatsky sought to rehabilitate not only Krasnov, but also his ideas about “The Don Republic” in order to use them in bargaining with the federal center. However, this desire did not meet the official government policy: Russia herself is actively accusing the political elite of the Baltic States and Ukraine of the rehabilitation of their supporters of Nazism. Her own initiative of this kind was clearly out of place.
FJCR stood against the rehabilitation of Krasnov, calling this action a "revision of the outcome of the Second World War" and an "anti-Russian affair. Vodolatsky’s initiative was opposed by the "United Russia" as well. At a press conference held on 22 January in Moscow, first Speaker of State Duma, Oleg Morozov, said that the issue of the rehabilitation of Krasnov could be raised only if new evidence is presented, proving that Krasnov was not an accomplice of the Nazis. As a result, on January 30, representatives of the Cossacks announced that they would no longer try to rehabilitate Krasnov because of his betrayal.
On May 9, on the anniversary of victory over fascism, a prayer in memory of the generals who were born in Russia and who served Hitler was held in Moscow near the memorial to Reconciliation of Peoples in the Church of All Saints at Sokol. The prayer was organized by the National Patriotic Front Pamyat (Memory), the oldest of Russia’s nationalist organizations.
4. A mass trade in items with the Nazi symbols continued, not only with antiques from the Second World War, but the newly made ones.
In early February, the police seized lighters with the Nazi symbols in one of the most prestigious souvenir shops of Rybinsk.
One of the cell phone shops in Samara was selling cell phone cases with swastika. Prosecutor of the Bor district found other violations in late March. Director of the cell phone shop was warned about the inadmissibility of further sales of such goods, while three company employees were fined. In St. Petersburg, modern replicas of German officer sabers with swastikas were found for sale in one of the souvenir shops in September. From conversations with the seller it turned out that they have been sold since the fall of 2007 and are in great demand. The spreading of Nazi symbols is forbidden since 2002, according to the Federal Law “On Countering Extremist Activities”.
Denial of the right to existence of the State of Israel and her right to defend herself, justification of anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish terrorism
1. Anti-Israeli actions of Islamists and Russian radical nationalists
2. The Russia-Georgia conflict and anti-Israeli publications in the Russian mass media and in the internet
3. Public reaction to anti-Semitism
1. Anti-Israel statements and public actions, just like in 2007, mostly originated from the Islamist circles. One of the most active authors of such statements was member of the Council of Muftis of Russia, Nafigulla Ashirov. On March 4, he stated that “Zionism is cancerous because Zionism is fascism.” Ashirov’s statement caused a big scandal (including the resolution of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia to suspend their relations with the Council of Muftis). According to the Mufti himself, as he claimed in late March 2008, FJCR’s decision proves that this organization identifies itself with the “Zionist regime”. Ashirov once again blamed “Zionists” for the crimes committed against the Palestinians. At the same time, in an attempt to absolve themselves of accusations of anti-Semitism, Ashirov demagogically declared that he separates Zionism and Judaism, and that he “loves the Jewish people very much.” Later, however, Ashirov was forced to tone down his position, probably for fear of prosecution. On May 22, he said that he did not compare Zionism to Nazism but “rightly condemned the crimes of the Zionist regime of Israel against its neighbors.”
When the Israeli army launched its Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, Nafigulla Ashirov compared it with genocide “of the Nazi Germany in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War” [i.e., WW2], while the blockade of Gaza he compared with the blockade of Leningrad.
The important thing, however, is not the figure of Ashirov or his statements but the fact that his views are shared and spread by a number of senior Muslim leaders. Many other representatives of the Muslim establishment take the media activities of the radicals as a sign of popular support of the Muslim “grassroots” and thus chose not to intervene, effectively permitting these anti-Israeli statements.
Ashirov’s statements he regularly made in the beginning of March 2008 enjoyed the support of a number of prominent representatives of Russia’s ummah. The Mufti of Moscow and Moscow region of the Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims (TSDUM), Imam-Khatib of the “Yardam” Mosque in Otradnoe, Mahmoud Velitov, said on March 27 that Ashirov’s words are not “far from the truth,” and his remarks are a "bold move". The Mufti of Karelia Wisam Ali Bardvil said that Ashirov told the truth, because Zionism is a form of fascism. He demanded that FJCR ceases all attacks on the Mufti and returns to the dialogue, to respect the freedom of speech and expression and to abandon the policy of “closed mouths”. Chief of Staff of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Nizhny Novgorod, Damir Muhetdinov, said on April 16 in support of the “rightness” of Mufti Ashirov’s statements about the “murders of Muslims” allegedly committed by the Israelis. In support of the Ashirov’s statements spoke Chairman of the St. Petersburg Islamic Cultural Center, Mohammed Henny, and leader of the Russian Congress of Peoples of the Caucasus, Denga Khalidov. Ashirov’s statements won the support of “non-system” Islamists - first of all, head of the so-called Islamic Committee of Russia, Heidar Jemal, who on April 3 told the Tomorrow newspaper that “Zionism is a form of racism (and to put it briefly, you can simply say “fascism”), which is known to everybody in the world”. He described Ashirov as a benefactor of the Jewish people of Russia, because he “makes a gesture of goodwill by dissociating the Jewish people from the crimes of the Zionists”. On May 29, Jemal, used rumors of Koptsev’s suicide in prison (Koptsev was convicted for the massacre in the synagogue on Bolshaya Bronnaya Street in January 2006), said that Koptsev, just as the well-known in the late 1980’s anti-Semite K. Smirnov-Ostashvili, “had been trained by provocateurs of those circles who wish to increase the inflow of Aliyah to Israel, insisting on the special circumstances of the Jewish people in Russia”. Jemal also attributed the training of skinheads to the same “circles”.
The Islamnews.ru portal on April 10 posted an article signed by “Ali Sagitov”, in which SMR was accused of defending the “Zionist position on major issues of modern life of Muslims.”
The Council of Muftis of Russia, co-led by Ashirov, has shown virtually no reaction to his outrageous statements. Later, representatives of the Council of Muftis tried to explain everything as a “provocation, bloated by the media”, blaming members of the press for blowing the scandal out of proportion.
Protest against the remarks made by Ashirov came only from representatives of the bodies competing with the Council of Muftis of Russia – the Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims, Perm Mufti M. Huzin and Yamal Mufti F. Salman. And almost all of them preferred to focus on the fact that Ashirov offended a number of Muslim leaders and has no right to speak on behalf of the Muslim community of Russia. Only F. Salman ventured to remark that the response of FJCR was quite a predictable step, but he too chose not to touch on the essence of the offensive and slanderous words of Ashirov against Israel.
Meanwhile, anti-Israeli statements of openly anti-Semitic nature were made not only by Islamic radicals, but also by representatives of the Russian nationalists. On February 26, the “ Russian Line” agency’s website posted an article of Jewish anti-Semite I. Shamir, in which he argued that the ideology of the Jewish state is based on discrimination by nationality and race, while racism has literally become part and parcel of the whole Israeli society from the moment the State of Israel appeared on the map.
On the same day, the “Duel” newspaper published an article “Atrocities of the Chosen Ones”, in which Israelis were accused of committing “an act of the most cynical and open fascism,” the organization of a humanitarian catastrophe and “collective punishment” of the Palestinians. A direct comparison of the Israelis with the Nazis’ anti-guerrilla operations was made. At the same time, actions of the Hamas terrorists were declared a “fight against Israel for the freedom of their land and for human conditions of existence”.
State Duma deputy Vladimir Ilyukhin said in early March in an interview with “ Novye Izvestiya” that the Communists support Lebanon and Palestine, because “Israel’s policy is predatory in nature”. At the same time, striving to present anti-Semitism as something normal, V. Ilyukhin said it was simple criticism and that in Russia “any criticism against persons of the Jewish nationality is declared anti-Semitism.” A number of nationalist activists – leader of one of the Unions of Russian People, general Leonid Ivashov, editor-in-chief of “Zavtra” A. Prokhanov, spoke in April 2008 in support of anti-Israeli statements of Mufti N. Ashirov. Accusations of double loyalties of the leaders of Jewish organizations who were trying to stop Ashirov were repeated in the nationalistic Internet media at Segodnya.ru.
On April 18, 2008, the “Nezavisimoe voennoe obozrenie” (Independent Military Review) newspaper published an article by V. Zaborovsky, alleging that since 1948, Israel has been implementing the principle of “land without people to people without a land”, and that in 1970 she tried to launch the occupation of Syria (or its southern part), Jordan and Lebanon.
In November 2008, commenting on the news of possible supply of the anti-missile system to Israel, senior researcher at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, RAS, Vladimir Evseev, in an interview to the “ Russian Newsweek” magazine called U.S. actions “reckless and unwise.” “This will destabilize the situation in the Middle East and increase the missile race in the region. Israel strengthens her defensive capabilities, so Iran will develop more powerful rockets: an action always causes counter-action”, he said. “The United States are thus breaking the fragile balance in the region by openly taking the side of Israel. Israel will be much more aggressive toward Iran if she feels more secure.”
On 22 December, the “ Novoe Vremya” newspaper published an article by head of the Center of Arab Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Naumkin, headlined “Death Throes of the Peace Process.” In this article, he spoke, in particular, about "the insane idea of Jerusalem being a united and undivided capital of the Jewish state”. The “Islamic option gives them (the Palestinians) at least some hope”. Under the “Islamic option" he referred to Hamas and its attacks. All attempts at establishing more or less acceptable boundaries were called "humiliating concessions for the Palestinians.”
2. An outburst of anti-Israeli statements demonizing the State of Israel was caused by “the August war” between Russia and Georgia, or rather the fact that Israel was on the list of countries supplying weapons to Georgia and that Israeli instructors from among the retired military officers had trained the Georgian army. The basis for these attacks was the careless (or rather very-well calculated and aimed at stirring up controversies between Russia and Israel, and greater support for Israel and the Jewish lobby in the United States) statement of the President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili. It was first heard in an interview with Israeli newspaper Maariv, published on August 14, 2008, “We have Jewish ministers in the government who have Israeli citizenship, and they did not flee. This is the main point of Israel’s involvement in the current events. We have ministers here – the defense minister and the minister for the settlement of regional conflicts. The issues of war and peace in our government are in the hands of Israeli Jews”.
New material containing anti-Israeli statements appeared on August 17 on the website of the official news agency “Osinform” of Southern Ossetia. This article contained blatant threats against Israelis – a proposal to the Government of Russia: “It would be interesting to know which Israeli companies are actively involved in business in Georgia in order to deliver a hard blow to their deep pockets in Russia.” Anti-Israeli feelings (fortunately, without switching to anti-Semitism) were seen in Northern Ossetia, too. According to leader of the Jewish community in the country, Mark Petrushansky, “The Ossetians have asked me: why is Israel helping the Georgians?”
An emphasis on Israelis’ assistance to Mikhail Saakashvili was also made by journalist Mikhail Leontiev, who dedicated part of his TV show “Odnako” to this question. It was part of the news program on the First TV channel. On 24 August, he recalled the words of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili about “Israeli Ministers” and declared Israel a “major supplier of high-tech weapons to Georgia”, and its citizens the main developers of the military operation in Southern Ossetia. In its editorial column in the "Profile" magazine, edited by that same Leontiev, he went much further, allowing to sound threats against Israel, claiming that Israel “should have thought” before selling arms to Georgia. A week before, on 18 August, the “Profile” published an article of Western”conspiracy" ideologist T. Meyssan “MUTINY IN PENTAGON: WAR AGAINST REDISTRIBUTION OF “GREATER MIDDLE EAST”, where the author paints the picture of a "rebellion" of the American establishment against the “Zionist lobby”, which supposedly inspired the war in Iraq. He also mentioned some kind of “Zionist apartheid” and accused the Israeli leadership of the organization of “another attack on Gaza” to disrupt the peace process in the Middle East. The “Russian Business” website published on August 30 an article that talks about the “Israeli-American patrons of Saakashvili, a US-Israeli war party, calling itself the “neo-conservatives”. The party apparently “sows the idea of ownership of land resources not by peoples or states, but by “all the mankind”, meaning that “the riches of the earth” are the natural resources of Russia and the “humankind” – its selected Anglo-Sakson Jewish part.”
On August 23, Nazarov’s website published an article by I. Savin, “Why Israel Is Helping the Georgians?”. It claimed that “Georgian Jews have come to power in Georgia”. Behind their backs, Israel and the US are planning to see how combat capable is Russia's army before the upcoming big fight, the ousting of Russia from the Caucasus and the organization of another military conflict along her borders, as well as organization of departure of the Georgian Jews to Israel “with the subsequent requirement of a tax to help the “poor displaced persons” which Israel made Germany pay as a result of the so-called holocaust”. (The fact that most of the Georgian Jews have already left Georgia has naturally escaped Mr. Sawin’s attention).
In his article “THE WAR THAT IS BENEFITIAL TO ALL ...”, Nazarov declared that Russia and Georgia “are run by unspiritual anti-national policy-makers, who illegally seized power with the support of the enemies of the Orthodox Church. Their illegitimate nature, their greed, and their venality is beneficial to our common enemy, who is finishing the construction of the New World Order – the kingdom of the mashiach. In this sense, there is no significant difference between your demoniac Saakashvili and our prudent and “wise national leader”, who yearn to participate in the Masonic February Revolution. Both distinguished themselves with the ritual ignition of Hanukkah candles in the synagogues and in their loyal overtures to Talmudists”. As a way out he offers that Georgians unite with the Russians and “restore” the Orthodox state.
On September 12, the “ Nezavisimoe voennoe obozrenie” published an article on "Who and How Helped Prepare the Georgian Invasion”. It claimed that the Israeli military instructors trained the Georgian army according to the program approved by the Israeli Ministry of Defense, and that the training itself was not a matter of private companies, but a conscious decision of the leadership of Israel “to provide all possible assistance in preparing the Georgian military.”
However, since Russia’s leadership has chosen not to stir up anti-Israeli sentiments, this burst calmed down fairly quickly, and the article in the “ Nezavisimoe voennoe obozrenie” became the last reference to the “negative” role of Israel.
3. Despite all these actions and statements, the anti-Israel sentiments were not dominating in the Russian society. Moreover, according to a survey conducted by the Levada Center in May 2008, there was a gradual increase in sympathy for Israel: 51% of the population thought well of Israel (in 2006, in the previous survey, this category numbered 46%). The number of people who dislike Israel declined from 37% in 2006 to 31% in 2008, while 67% rated the Russian-Israeli relations in the range from normal to excellent. Such an improved attitude towards Israel is largely a consequence of the growth of Russia-Israel contacts (in 2008, Israel was visited by 356,000 tourists from Russia) and the development of economic and cultural ties between the countries.