#8
Vremya Novostei
January 21, 2002
AN INTERVIEW WITH YEVGENY SATANOVSKY, PRESIDENT OF THE
RUSSIAN JEWISH CONGRESS
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]
Question: Is there anti-Semitism in Russia today?
Yevgeny Satanovsky: I would not say it is institutionalized on the state level. The elite is what matters, and the Russian elite is not on the caveman level of consciousness anymore. There is mundane distrust of Jews in every country every day. Where there are no Jews, someone will inevitably be suspected of being one. Not only Jews are affected however. That goes for all ethnic groups. They all are distrustful of others to some degree or the other.
Question: Does it occur to you that the negative historical experience could have bred certain complexes in some Jews? For instance the victim may think that he or she is entitled to a great deal by way of recompense?
Yevgeny Satanovsky: For Jews with their memory of Holocaust, this is not a complex of the victim. It is rather a manner of behavior.
Question: French ambassador to Great Britain calls Israel a "small shitty country" in a private conversation, thereby generating an international conflict. Russia may be castigated without anybody giving a damn. But when you criticize a Jew, you automatically become an anti-Semite...
Yevgeny Satanovsky: What really matters is who criticizes and what for. I'd recommend that Russian politicians take a lesson or two from the Israelis. He who does not respect himself cannot expect to be respected by anybody else. The Jews have learned to defend themselves and their dignity.
Question: On what level do you communicate with Russian authorities? Do Jewish organizations experience problems with state security structures nowadays?
Yevgeny Satanovsky: I regularly meet with the authorities. What can I say? Jews do not threaten Russia's security. They do not pose a threat of separatism or terrorism.
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