MOSCOW, Jan 25 (AFP) - Russia's nationalist lawmakers have asked the prosecutor general to ban all Jewish organizations because of their "extremist" views in a vitriolic call coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.
The letter, which was dated January 13 only rose to public attention this week, but it has shocked human rights defenders and some of the original signatories had reportedly changed their minds and were withdrawing their names.
A foreign ministry statement, issued on the eve of President Vladimir Putin's attendance at the Auschwitz memorial commemoration in Poland, said: "The statement has nothing to do with the official position of the Russian leadership."
The seven-page call signed by 20 members of the 450-seat State Duma lower house of parliament that included the Communist Party and nationalist groups used some of the most profane language against Jews publicly published in the post-Soviet era.
"The whole democratic world today is under the financial and political control of the Jews," said the statement.
"We would not want our Russia, which is subject to a permanent, extra-legal war seeking to prevent its rebirth, to find itself among unfree countries," it added.
The group, led by ultranationalist firebrand Vladimir Zhirinovsky and his Liberal Democratic Party, called on the Russian courts to ban "all Jewish religious and community groups" which the statement also described as "anti-Christian" and accused Jews of staging attacks against their own community as a provocation so they could pin blame on others.
"We would like to underline that many anti-Jewish acts around the world are staged by the Jews themselves as a provocation in order to take punitive measures against patriots," the letter said.
The Russian state officially does not subscribe to any religion, but Orthodox Christians dominate the country's religious life and often enter into politics with the patriarch's frequent meetings with Putin and some visiting heads of state.
The appeal was published on paper carrying the parliament's letterhead and called on Russia's prosecutor general to "officially open a legal investigation into banning all Jewish religious and community groups" on grounds of "defense of the homeland."
"We cannot follow the false idea of tolerance which is imposed on us, such as that of the acceptance of sin, of evil, of heresy, and in the present case, of nothing less than satanism," it said.
It was also published by a periodical called Orthodox Russia in a version that had some 500 signatures that included editors of nationalist publications.
The Israeli embassy here issued a statement asking the Russian government to "immediately" take measures to fight growing anti-Semitism in the country. "This is a classic example of anti-Semitism," the statement said.
The letter and the following Israeli appeal were not covered by the state-controlled media, but rights groups were quick to vent their outrage.
The Moscow Bureau for Human Rights appealed to both Putin and Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov asking the two to denounce the anti-Jewish drive.
"Will Russia be able to put a stop to the brewing neo-nationalism," the human rights body's letter demands.
Meanwhile Andrei Cherkizov -- one of Moscow's most noted Jewish commentators -- accused the Russian government itself of secretly harboring ant-Semitic views.
"I can tell you this with absolute certainty," Cherkizov told Moscow Echo radio. "However you try to cover up anti-Semitism, its naked feet will still be sticking out."
01/25/2005 16:51 GMT - AFP