This is the first editorial in the January 27th issue of the Sakhalin Times

Russia has always had deep undercurrents of Anti-Semitism. Jews have been the butt of many a Russian anecdote (joke). The USSR went as far as classifying the Jews as a separate nationality rather than followers of a different faith. From Stalin right through the 1990s the Jews were made whipping boys.

Despite the obvious shortcomings of life in Russia, more than half a million Jews chose to remain in Russia post-1991. Love for Russia was more important than the allure of greener pastures in America and Israel. They are as Russian as anybody and since Soviet times assimilated into mainstream society. No one can tell a “Jew” apart from a “Russian.” Yet xenophobic waves, partly encouraged by the Orthodox clergy and to a lesser extent different regional administrations, are sweeping Russia.

Attacks on Jewish cemeteries, synagogues and even Rabbis can be written off as the work of a few anti-social elements. However, when a group of 20 democratically-elected Members of the Duma, approach the Prosecutor General to ban all Jewish groups and parties, it’s hard not to acknowledge that a serious problem exists. These MPs went to the extent of blaming Jews for attacks on Jews, much like the Al Qaeda sympathisers who still see an Israeli hand in 9-11.

What’s even more frightening is the fact many of these MPs belong to a party that has a majority in the Sakhalin Duma. Most Jewish people in Sakhalin still hide their religious identity, or the religious identity of their forefather to be more appropriate, to avoid ridicule in society. A senior Sakhalin official, who died in 2003, once went to the extent of saying that Muslims and Jews weren’t Russian and that their culture had little place in Russia. The large media contingent at that conference kept mum during the tirade.
It’s obvious that a large section of society is on the lookout for scapegoats and its fashionable to blame the Jews. If the Russian public wants Europe to accept them as “European” and “Civilised”, they better learn to shed these xenophobic sentiments. The acts of these MPs are those of “civilised citizens.”

Fifty years ago on this very day, the Auschwitz Concentration Camp was liberated by the Soviet Union. Besides humiliating President Putin, who is at the Liberation Day celebrations, these MPs are dishonouring the very soldiers and country that defeated Fascism. Corruption, crime and other diseases to society follow a trickle down approach and it is upto President Putin to flay these kinds of statements and sentiments for the good of Russia.