ITAR-TASS: Russia calls for steps against anti-Semitism at OSCE conference Leader of the Russian delegation to the OSCE Conference on Steps to Counter anti-Semitism, Deputy Minister of Culture and Communications Leonid Nadirov called on its participants here to jointly work out “effective instruments to combat manifestations of anti-Semitism”. Addressing the forum, he stressed the importance of promoting the necessary norms of legal protection “by bringing up and educating the young people” correspondingly on the entire space, for which the OSCE bears responsibility. The deputy minister noted that the people of Russia “hold sacred the memory of the victims of Nazism, including the six million victims of the Holocaust, a half of whom, i.e. three millions, were citizens of the Soviet Union”. “Profanation of the memory of the victims of nazism is a challenge to the entire international community,” the Russian diplomat stressed. He said he was shocked by the refusal of the United States and the EU countries to back a corresponding resolution at the session of the U.N. Human Rights Committee in April 2004. “In keeping with the OSCE Decision No. 607, our delegation moves to set up special centres for the elaboration of a tolerance program on the basis of the museums of Jewish legacy and of the Holocaust, and to help them in their work,” Nadirov stated. “Not only the present-day fight against anti-Semitism, but the future efforts, too, depend on these programs,” he added.