Jews accused

last updated 8 January 2015

Moscow

A group of Russian lawmakers has called on the prosecutor-general to investigate Jewish groups for “spreading Jewish extremism.” The 19 members of the State Duma said in a joint letter that Jewish groups had been filing too many lawsuits accusing people of anti-Semitism, and argued that it was this litigiousness that “provoked anti-Semitism in Russia.” Some “patriots” had made negative remarks about Jews, the lawmakers conceded, but those comments, while not “proper in style,” were “justified in essence.” Jewish leaders were appalled, describing the document as the work of “brutal anti-Semites.”