Putin on the Jews
A little piece of journalism surfaced recently on the internet related to some of the sideline issues of recent announcement by Premier Putin to return to the post of the President of the Russian Federation.
I though it warranted a reaction.
A decent article but a little unfocused in its message. Is it about the future of democratic reforms in Russian Federation or is it about the future of Jewish Diaspora there? The author appears a little unsure, often the case with modern Liberal Jewish media.
I do think that the author is accurate in his observations that Putin’s regime, both as President or Prime Minister, has never been overtly anti-Semitic. He has allowed the proliferation of Jewish culture in RF, his nationalistic rhetoric never focused on Jews as enemies and his visit to Israel was heartening.
But not all is well in the great state of Russian Federation. Putin has done NOTHING to actually protect Jewish culture, brought about no programs that would stem the tide of young Jews leaving Russian in favor of Israel and America. His government has recognized legitimacy of Hamas and lately encouraged the Palestinian Authority in their malevolent search for independence. Putin’s government loudly criticized Israel for the assault on the ships running the Gaza blockade.
Putin is a product of a system that was hugely anti-Semitic, but he was wise enough politician to realize that anti-Jewish sentiment has played itself out after the Soviet era. With the rise of nationalistic tendencies in RF, Jewish people are simply not numerous and not distinctive enough to act as proper scapegoats. The article cites that there is almost a million Jews in RF, while most casual internet searches would point that the number is probably only a quarter of that.
As assimilated as Jews became in the Soviet Era, ant-Semitic rhetoric on the national level would have been a useless tool for Putin’s administration.
As much as it pains me to say it, the future of Russia no longer lies in parallel with the future of Jewish people. We have our own problems to solve in our own state and in places where our diaspora still has a strong presence and influence on politics and policies.
The future of Russia is uncertain, but this return to nearly despotic rule of government will probably not be of benefit. The articles fear for liberal ideals and the future of Russia as a democratic nation are a lot better founded then the idea that Jews are safe in Putin’s Russia. Jews are irrelevant in Putin’s Russia.
