Russia: Moscow’s Talk about ‘Fifth Column’ Leading Directly to Revival of Anti-Semitism, Analyst Says

Anti-Semitism has a long and horrific history in Russia, Olga Irisova writes, and every time Moscow has “tightened the screws” and focused as now on the supposed existence of “a fifth column,” Russians will focus on nationality – the notorious “fifth line” in Soviet passports – and attacks on Jews will increase.

Irisova writes in Moskovsky Komsomolets that “the lists of ‘national traitors’” various activists and officials are putting out contain “almost exclusively Jewish or ‘similar’ names,” noting “the growth of anti-Semitism parallels the intensification of aggression against the opposition.”

In Putin’s Russia, says the analyst, the “hurrah patriots find ‘a Jew’ in each who criticizes the powers that be and even equates the two.” Oleg Balychev, a United Russia deputy of the Kaliningrad Region legislature called several local politicians “Jews that have settled in the opposition,” and St. Petersburg deputy Vitaly Milonov said that those criticizing the authorities were simply following a “2000-year-old tradition” which he said “began with calls to crucify the Saviour.”

It may be still “too early” to speak about state sponsorship of this trend, although the failure of the authorities to condemn such comments speaks loudly and has convinced 4,500 Jews to seek to move to Israel over the last year. But both the comments and the silence are evidence that Russian society is in trouble and has already “gone beyond civilized limits.”

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