Union of Councils for Soviet Jews: Motherland Party Leaders Make Their Antisemitism Official

Created and indirectly supported by the Kremlin in 2003 in an effort to sap nationalist votes from the opposition Communist Party in the December 2003 Duma elections, the Motherland (“Rodina”) party has from the beginning included several prominent antisemites within its ranks. Most notoriously, Motherland deputies made up the majority of the 19 State Duma members who signed a January 2005 letter to the Prosecutor General's Office calling for a ban on Jewish organizations in Russia. The letter asserted that Judaism is a “Satanic” religion and made reference to the medieval blood libel. Through it all, however, Motherland's two most prominent members-party leader Dmitry Rogozin and deputy speaker of the State Duma Sergey Baburin-have played the roles of fellow travelers, benefiting politically from their connections with extremist nationalists within their party, but never openly making antisemitic statements or taking any other action to make antisemitism an official part of their party's ideology. In the wake of the January 11, 2006 attack on Moscow's Bolshaya Bronnaya synagogue, this has now changed. As UCSJ previously reported, Mr. Baburin and several other Motherland deputies made public statements in the wake of the attack criticizing the media for linking Aleksandr Koptsev's slashing of eight worshipers within the synagogue with antisemitic literature found in his apartment. The Motherland deputies also defended themselves against a charge made by a State Duma deputy from the United Russia party that those who signed last January's antisemitic letter bear some responsibility for the attack and therefore should be expelled from the Motherland party or otherwise disciplined. Several of these deputies stated that they were proud to have signed the letter; one even called for another such letter to be sent.