PSCRP-BESA Reports No 27 (January 10, 2024)
The active synthesis of old communist ideology with far-right nationalist and anti-Semitic views in Russia has been going on for a long time, since Soviet era (for example, through the activities of the so-called unofficial nationalist and conservative “Russian Party” in the late Soviet period). We will consider only three examples of individuals from the Russian security services who played a significant role in promoting anti-Semitic ideology in the post-Soviet period, giving it a pseudo-intellectual character. The analysis of these three consecutive cases shows a gradual increase in the tolerance of the Russian state of open anti-Semitism on the part of influential figures with background in security services. This situation, as we will analyze in the second part of the paper, has also begun to influence legal practice in Russia.
Open Anti-Semites in the Russian security services
First, there is Lieutenant General Nikolai Leonov, the last head of the Analytical Department of the KGB of the USSR. He later retired and became an active participant of the so-called “red-brown” opposition to Yeltsin, synthesizing conservative and anti-Semitic elements from both late-Soviet times and European far-right ideologies. In 2005, he became a member of the State Duma (the lower house of the Russian parliament) from a faction that included many members of that former “red-brown” coalition, and signed the “Letter 5000,” addressed to the Prosecutor-General of Russia, demanding that all Jewish religious and national associations in Russia be banned as “extremist”. At the time, such a position seemed too marginal for the majority of the Russian elite. State agencies did their best to neutralize the possible political effect of this appeal.
Later, Lieutenant General Leonid Reshetnikov of the Foreign Intelligence Service made a significant contribution to the promotion of anti-Semitism in the security services. From 2009 to 2017, he served as director of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS) under the Russian presidential administration, a key official agency that shapes state strategy. Reshetnikov actively promoted the theory that the Russian royal family were victims of ritual murder by Jewish Bolsheviks, as well as other theories of global conspiracy against Russia. The informal group led by him was dubbed the “Orthodox Chekists.” In 2017, exhausted by public scandals involving him and dissatisfied with the poor quality of RISS expertise, Putin dismissed Reshetnikov. The directorship of RISS was assumed by former Prime Minister and former head of the Foreign Intelligence Service Mikhail Fradkov, who is of Jewish by origin. This had symbolic meaning for Russian security services. Even in 2017, anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories were still considered rather marginal in the Russian elite. However, Reshetnikov remained politically active, for example, he joined the board of trustees of the Tsargrad TV channel owned by Konstantin Malofeev, a conservative Orthodox oligarch and author of several anti-Semitic works who financed the initial stages of the armed conflict in Ukraine.
By 2022, the situation in Russia’s law enforcement structures began to gradually change. The spread of conservative ideology and conspiracy theories became mainstream in the Russian political elite. This opened up new opportunities for anti-Semites.
Since 2009, Lieutenant General of the FSB Alexey Pavlov has served as assistant to Nikolai Patrushev, the Russia’s Security Council Secretary. On October 26, 2022, with the war in Ukraine in full swing, Pavlov published an article in the popular newspaper Argumenty i fakty. As justification for Putin’s “special military operation,” he claimed that “satanic” cults were gaining strength in Ukraine, mentioning the Lubavitch Hasidim among other such cults. Pavlov asserted, “The main life principle of the Lubavitch Hasidim is the superiority of the sect’s followers over all nations and peoples.” He also stated, “As the special military operation continues, the need to ‘de-satanize’ Ukraine becomes increasingly urgent.”
The article drew sharp criticism from Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, who regarded the publication as “an insult to millions of Jews believers, including a significant majority of Jews in Russia.” Lazar emphasized that the Lubavitch Hasidim and the Chabad religious movement are not a “sect” but a legitimate school of Judaism and the largest movement within Hasidism.
The next day, the same newspaper Argumenty i fakty published an article saying that the editorial board had received a letter from the Secretary of the Security Council Patrushev, which stated the following: “The article by A.A. Pavlov, Assistant Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, published in the weekly Argumenty i fakty, contained erroneous lines about the Lubavitch Hasidim. I apologize to the readers of the publication and would like to note that this interpretation reflects A.A. Pavlov’s personal point of view and is in no way the official position of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. The author of the article has been appropriately reprimanded.”
On January 20 of the following year, A.A. Pavlov was relieved of his duties as Assistant Secretary of the Security Council of Russia by decree of the Russian President (without specifying the reasons for his dismissal).
According to many experts, the whole incident with Pavlov’s dismissal looks ambiguous compared even to the past stories when security officials tried to publicly promote anti-Semitic ideology. Pavlov did not personally apologize. His boss Patrushev never specified what were the inaccuracies that the “erroneous lines about the Lubavitch Hasidim” contained.
Jews, including Hasidim, might have seen this as an official apology. However, nationalists and anti-Semites might interpret it differently. For instance, one anti-Semitic outlet stated that Hasidim are indeed not a sect (as Pavlov wrote): “Currently, the Hasidim are the leading and most globally politically active and influential movement in Judaism“, but according to the channel’s opinion, this does not make them less dangerous to Russia (and any less “satanic”). Observers familiar with the culture of the Russian security agencies noted that Pavlov had indeed broken an unwritten tradition dating back to the Soviet KGB. Discussions of the “Jewish conspiracy” and “Jewish question” in the Soviet nomenklatura were always approached very cautiously, often in hints, in a cryptic style, and preferably not publicly.
Pavlov was dismissed almost two months after the incident, and the connection between the article and his dismissal was not discussed. The presidential decree relieving Pavlov of his duties did not specify the reasons. Thus, Pavlov’s removal from office had no moral significance in terms of condemning official anti-Semitism and did not clearly reflect the state’s position. Pavlov’s former superior, Patrushev, himself subscribes to several theories considered by social science experts to be conspiracy theories. However, it must be acknowledged that he has always issued very cautious public texts and has never made anti-Semitic statements in them. As a rule, his texts present the Anglo-Saxons, not Jews, as Russia’s adversaries.
Thus, in May 2023, the Secretary of the Security Council, in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper, predicted the eruption of the Yellowstone volcano, which would become an “unprecedented catastrophe.” He also noted that “some in America claim that in the event of a possible eruption, the safest place will be Eastern Europe and Siberia. Apparently, this is the answer to the question why the Anglo-Saxon elite is so eager to seize this very Heartland.” It should be clarified that said Heartland refers to Eurasia in Mackinder’s geopolitical theory, and some Russian geopoliticians (foe example, the famous ideologist of Russian Orthodox conservatism and anti-Semite Alexander Dugin, author of the book “Foundations of Geopolitics”) consider Russia to be the center of this Heartland. Accordingly, they believe that the eternal war between this Heartland and “oceanic” states is inevitable.
On October 2, 2023, in the Razvedchik magazine (meaning “Scout” in Russian) Patrushev published an article “The Collapse of Parasitic Empires,” in which he exposes the “predatory nature of the Western model of civilization, which has survived with some changes until our days.” Among elements of this civilization Patrushev names colonialism and neocolonialism of the West, particularly the Anglo-Saxons, exploitation of less developed countries, military and political pressure, creation of chaos and destabilization of various world regions for harsher exploitation, destruction of sovereignties, national traditions and historical memory, imposition of globalism, environmentalism, transhumanism, gender diversity, and so on.
The spiritual father of Patrushev (who is a Russian Orthodox Christian), according to the liberal Novaya Gazeta, is Metropolitan Tikhon Shevkunov. He is the leader of the conservatives in the Russian Orthodox Church. Some of his publications and films have subtly support anti-Semitic myths, such as the myths about Jews selling Byzantine church treasures or the ritual murder of the Tsar’s family by Jewish Bolsheviks.
Looking at the dynamics of anti-Semitic statements from Leonov through Reshetnikov to Pavlov, one can see that the open expression of official state anti-Semitism among Russian security officials is still restrained by the country’s leadership (in particular, Nikolai Patrushev and Vladimir Putin). However, thanks to the spread of official conspiracy theories, anti-Semitic theories are becoming closer to the official discourse prevalent in the security agencies. The official refutation of anti-Semitic statements is constructed in such a way as not to offend Jews, but at the same time to maintain the support of the far-right circles to which the new Russian ideology appeals. Moreover, liberal critics of the Russian regime note that some of the officially used ideological used constructs simply replace the word “Jew” with euphemisms (e.g., Zionist, cosmopolitan, Westerner, liberal, foreign agent, relocant, oppositionist, political emigrant, etc.).
The Influence of Anti-Semitism on Legal Practice in Russia
The ideological manipulation of conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism in Russia would not matter much if it did not influence actual practices, including legal practices. The latter already carry considerable weight, as they may indicate a genuine trend towards the institutionalization of state anti-Semitism. Let us briefly examine three well-known cases of this nature.
- Kirill Serebrennikov, whose father was Jewish, is a prominent theater director known for his highly critical stance towards Putin’s ideology. He was accused of mismanaging state funds allocated to support the arts. Together with him, a group of theater figures were put on trial. The director was handed a three-year suspended sentence. Throughout the trial, both in Russia and abroad, opinions often emerged that the process was politically motivated. Anti-Semitic publications emphasized that Serebrennikov was homosexual and that all those involved in the case were Jewish. Serebrennikov’s entire career was also interpreted in anti-Semitic publications as an example of a Jewish conspiracy aimed at dismantling Russian culture, introducing homosexuality and promoting Western decadence in it. In this respect, his critics followed the path of Goebbels, who viewed “decadent Jewish culture” as a threat to German culture.
- Over the past three years, the Jewish Agency for Israel has faced an unprecedented number of inspections at its branches throughout Russia. In June 2022, the Russian Ministry of Justice issued a new list of claims against the Jewish Agency. Based on this list, the Ministry of Justice made a legal attempt to shut down the Jewish Agency, which was stalled under the pressure from Israel. Nevertheless, the pressure of the Russian state on complicated its operations and made life more difficult for Russian Jews seeking to repatriate to Israel through the Jewish Agency.
- Yevgenia Berkovich and Svetlana Petriychuk were arrested on May 4, 2023, on charges of justifying terrorism because of their play, Finist the Brave Falcon. The play featured Russian women deciding to marry Islamists supporting ISIS and travel to Syria.
Petriychuk’s play was presented to the public four years ago, while the performance based on it was staged two years ago, and by the time the criminal case was filed, the play was no longer running. In 2022, Finist the Brave Falcon received numerous theater awards, including two nominations for the prestigious Golden Mask award (the most prestigious theater award in Russia) — for the playwright’s work and for the best costumes. Opposition circles immediately assumed that the case was politically motivated. Berkovich openly expressed anti-war views and wrote poems on anti-war themes.
Most observers noted an anti-Semitic element in the case. In putting Berkovich under arrest, the court relied on the expert opinion of Roman Silantyev, who found justification of terrorism in the play. The court rejected the defense’s appeal, including the demand to scrutinize the expert. On the day of the hearing, Silantyev stated in a public interview: “…the performance gives the impression that allegedly life in ISIS is better than in Russia. Allegedly, it is so bad to live in our country… I’ve noticed more than once that Jews actively support the Wahhabis, as if in defiance of Russians. We have a whole group of Jews who joined this organization and happily perished there…“
Of course, this statement is not true: there are no Jews from Russia who have been recruited by ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The Russian Jewish Congress sent an appeal to the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin, with a request to investigate Roman Silantyev’s statements on the subject of inciting interethnic discord and to bring him to justice according to the law.
Some observers believe that the Berkovich case is the first openly anti-Semitic trial in Russia. Furthermore, based on this case, a new judicial practice may emerge of bringing in openly anti-Semitic individuals to provide expert examination and subsequently issuing verdicts.
In conclusion, it is crucial to monitor the influence of anti-Semitic ideology on the Russian legal system and other key elements of Russian administrative and legal practice, both in terms of the future prospects of Jews in Russia and in terms of the inter-state relations between Russia and Israel.