“Marina, I Love You So Much”

This is what Vladimir Putin really is. Read it, all of it, both pages. And remember, Chabad helped put that monster in power and helps keep him there.

The Russian Dark Ages

The Jewish Week writes in an unsigned editorial:

… Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to consolidate his power and snuff out feeble flickers of democracy. Dissent is dangerous, a fact that may underlie the bizarre case of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, fatally poisoned in London with a rare radioactive substance, only weeks after the murder of a fearless journalist who wrote of trauma in Chechnya. [And now, another Putin critic has apparently been poisoned.] And with it, ultra-nationalism is on the rise, inevitably producing a rise in anti-Semitic incidents.

Right now, the primary targets of the ascendant ultra-nationalists are people from Central Asia and the Caucusus, but it would be folly to assume that Russia’s Jews will somehow be immune.

A Russia swimming in oil and gas profits wants to play a bigger role on the world scene, but more often than not, Putin’s foreign policy contributes to conflict and instability, not peace.

Russia, a major supplier of nuclear technology to Tehran, continues to thwart international efforts to slow that country’s quest for nuclear weapons. The surface-to-air missiles Russia is sending to Iran might someday be used to shoot down American or Israeli planes seeking to achieve what diplomacy failed to do.

A battered, beset Bush administration has been too willing to ignore Russia’s descent from democracy and its increasingly disruptive role on the international scene. That needs to change — for the sake of U.S. interests around the world and for the minorities that will inevitably suffer if Russia returns to the traditionally toxic mix of authoritarian rule and ultra-nationalism.

Only a handful of Jewish groups — led by NCSJ, a human rights group dealing with the former Soviet Union — are closely following ominous developments in Russia. That, too, needs to change if we are to protect a large and endangered Russian Jewish community that could be standing at the brink of a new dark age.

And the religious group that gives Vladimir Putin diplomatic and moral cover? Chabad, the very same group of dancing rabbis and cholent eaters so many of you love.

Vladimir Putin a “Pedophile”?

The Russian dissident assassinated by,it seems, Vladimir Putin’s security services, once accused Putin of being a pedophile. Is Putin? Who knows … So far, there isn’t enough evidence to say. Of course, one dead dissident may have seen to that.

Putin, Democracy and The Jews

Nathaniel Popper of the Forward writes in the Wall Street Journal:

…"Russia is not ready for a Democratic or Republican or liberal Jewish coalition," said Rabbi Berel Lazar, the chief rabbi of Russia and Mr. Putin’s closest friend in the Jewish leadership. "Russia is a different mindset–a different history, different tradition. In Russia, Jews should not be involved in politics."

Such self-censorship has not always been the rule in the post-Soviet era. In 1996, the Jewish media oligarch Vladimir Gusinsky helped found the Russian Jewish Congress as a voice for the 500,000 Jews of Russia. Mr. Gusinsky was accused of bringing his own political battles into his Jewish work, but he was not afraid to speak out about the Russian government’s policies toward Israel or its policies toward Chechnya. Perhaps more important, the Russian Jewish Congress sparred with other Jewish groups about the proper positions to take. There was, in short, debate.

Then, in 2000, Mr. Gusinsky was arrested and forced to flee the country. Like oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky a few years later, Mr. Gusinsky was accused of financial wrongdoing, but opposing Mr. Putin was seen by many as the real crime. The new oligarchs who took over the funding of the Russian Jewish Congress were noticeably silent on the Kremlin’s policies. It was obviously bad for business.

The changes at the congress were not the only shift caused by Kremlin intervention. For a number of years after the fall of communism, Russia had multiple "chief rabbis," representing different Jewish traditions. In 2002, this custom changed when Mr. Putin signaled that he would only deal with one of these rabbis, Berel Lazar, as the official chief. Whatever the reason–and it is hotly disputed–Mr. Putin’s intervention has effectively shut out the other voices of community, leaving only the overwhelmingly friendly proclamations of Rabbi Lazar and the Russian Jewish Congress.

That Jewish organizations avoid criticizing Mr. Putin does not mean, however, that there are no Jewish people in the opposition. Alexander Osovtsov, the staff director of the Russian Jewish Congress under Mr. Gusinsky, joined the pro-democracy movement. His first job was with the Open Russia Foundation, which was shut down after its leader’s arrest. Now he is with Another Russia, a group that trains opposition leaders.

Mr. Osovtsov says that his years at the Russian Jewish Congress were hopeful ones, but an outspoken, independent Jewish organization is now impossible. It could function normally, he says, "only if there is a minimal degree of freedom in the country. That doesn’t exist anymore."

It does not exist because Chabad under the leadership of a thug named Berel Lazar and his financial backer Lev Leviev helped Putin with his "Guzinsky problem" and in return became the "exclusive" voice of Russia’s Jews. This anti-democratic thuggery is truly what Chabad is about. The dancing rabbis are simply PR, a fundraising tool.

[Hat Tip: Dr. G. Mendel.]

Meanwhile, the Russian dissident poisoned, it seems, by Vladimir Putin’s thugs has died in London. [Hat Tip for this bit of sad news: Yisroel.]

To read the long, sad tale of Chabad’s Russian evildoings, click here and start reading from the bottom of the page.

Leading Critic of Vladimir Putin Poisoned In London

It seems Chabad’s dear friend Vladimir Putin has tried to kill another opponent of his regime, this time by poison in London, apparently during a meeting where he got these documents:

[W]hich claimed to name Ms Politkovskaya’s killers. According to the papers, she was murdered by four members of President Vladimir Putin’s federal security service, known as the FSB.

Meanwhile, 3000 Chabad emissaries and their rich supporters will have a festive meal in New Jersey. Among them will be Putin’s dear friend, the man who provides Putin with a "moral fig leaf," Chabad’s own "chief rabbi of Russia" Berel Lazar.

Will Lazar be challenged over his unqualified support of Putin? Will pro-democracy Chabad emissaries push for change? Of course not. And this is the problem with Chabad in a nutshell.

Chabad’s Chief Rabbi of Russia: Stop Talking About Democratic Rights of Minorities, Gays Parade “Dirty, Insulting, Indecent,” Gays, “Not Quite Sure They Are Normal”

Interfax reports:

Moscow, November 8, Interfax – Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar identified with a distinctive negative reaction of the Orthodox Jews in Israel to gay parade planned in Jerusalem on November 10.

‘One should see that the only object of this parade is to make a PR action, which is dirty, insulting and indecent,’ Lazar said in his interview to Interfax.

He thinks that the constantly displayed wish of sexual minorities to publicly demonstrate their way of life shows ‘uncertainty about their case, if not an inferiority complex, as they are not quite sure whether they are normal and badly need public recognition.’

‘They say they hold their parade so that people can understand them. Yet it would be much better if they learn to understand the feelings of other people first and then demand understanding,’ the interviewee is convinced.

The insulting of the feelings of believers as a main purpose of gay parade in Jerusalem ‘will certainly be achieved. In this case one should stop taking about the freedom of self-expression and democratic right of minorities.’ Such is the view of the chief rabbi of Russia.

Chabad’s ‘chief rabbi’ of Russia should be removed immediately.

Putin on Katsav: Powerful! Raped 10 Women! We All Envy Him!

Vladimir Putin, the neo-Stalinist thug who runs Russia, has this to say about Israel’s embattled president, Moshe Katsav:

President Vladimir Putin made joking references to the sexual assault accusations against Israeli President Moshe Katsav during a meeting with the visiting Israeli prime minister in remarks that shocked longtime Kremlin-watchers.

A Kremlin spokesman said Friday that Putin’s meaning had been lost in translation from Russian to English.
As Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with the Russian leader in an ornate reception room in the Kremlin on Wednesday, reporters overheard Putin tell him: "Say hello to your president. He really surprised us."

The microphones were then cut off, but a member of the Israeli delegation told The Associated Press that Putin went on to say of Katsav: "I met him. He didn’t look like a guy who could be with 10 women."

The Israeli ambassador quipped, "It seems like he’s envious of him," and Olmert told his host: "I wouldn’t envy him," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the press.

Russia’s Kommersant daily conveyed a more graphic version of the conversation, quoting Putin as saying: "He turns out to be a really powerful guy! He raped 10 women!" It also quoted Putin himself as saying "We all envy him."

Earlier this week, Israeli police recommended that Katsav be charged with rape, aggravated sexual assault and misconduct after women who once worked for him filed complaints. The 60-year-old has denied any wrongdoing but the scandal has rocked Israel and sparked calls for his resignation from the largely ceremonial post…

Putin Takes Another Step To Crush Democracy

Russia’s Czar President Vladimir Putin has taken another draconian step to crush democracy. The law mentioned in this report was mentioned here last year during the tumult over the expulsion of Moscow’s chief rabbi, a Putin (and Chabad) enemy. Now, the law has been passed. The New Yok Times reports:

…The new law, strongly backed by President Vladimir V. Putin, created extensive new filing requirements, which in some cases the [non-governmental] organizations, [primarily charities, educational and human rights orgs and schools] said had been so tedious and lengthy as to be almost impossible to fulfill. The groups have also expressed apprehension over the rules’ vagueness, which could allow any group to be audited, and perhaps closed, on a pretext.

They and their supporters have said that how the law is enforced will be a test of whether Russia will allow foreign organizations that it dislikes to continue to work in the country. The first deadline, and its effects on Thursday, were accompanied by a strong sense of concern, even fear.

“My fear is that their intention is to shut us down,” Josh Rubenstein, a director at Amnesty International, said by telephone. Amnesty International has had an office in Russia since the days of the last Soviet leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, he said.

The Justice Ministry posted a list of 73 organizations that were not yet approved, and thus were suspended. At least 38 of those were listed by the ministry as American or had a clear American affiliation, including the American Bar Association, the American-Russian Business Council, the American Trade Chamber and Johns Hopkins University.

The suspended Western organizations also included the Danish Refugee Council and the French and Belgian offices of Doctors Without Borders.…

Tyranny In Russia

The Jewish Week writes:

… Russia, under the increasingly dictatorial President Vladimir Putin, continues its headlong plunge back toward the authoritarianism it supposedly abandoned with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Jewish groups like NCSJ, which advocates on behalf of the many Jews remaining in the former Soviet Union, say the signs are increasingly alarming.

Political parties are weak and getting weaker, the political opposition is all but nonexistent. Citizens used to vote for governors; now they’re appointed. A new rule regulating nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) is so broadly worded that it may have a chilling impact on all political advocacy.

Extremism and xenophobia are on the rise, unchecked by the Putin government. Not surprisingly, given Russian history, anti-Semitism is on the rise as well, although Jews are not now the primary targets of the Russian ultranationalists. Last week the Helsinki Commission, a U.S. government agency that monitors human rights in Europe, expressed alarm at rising violence against minorities, and called on Putin to take stronger action.

Recently Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking to a conference of Eastern European leaders, said that “In Russia today, opponents of reform are seeking to reverse the gains of the last decade,” and that in areas ranging from “religion and the news media to advocacy groups and political parties, the government has unfairly and improperly restricted the rights of the people.” …

What the Jewish Week fails to note is the help in crushing his opponents Putin received from Chabad. It also fails to note the growing realization within Chabad that Rabbi Berel Lazar‘s policy of cozying up to Putin has led to some very unwanted results.

Technorati Tags: antisemitism, Chabad, jewish, Russia

More On Berel Lazar’s Russian Citizenship Issues

The JTA has more detail on Chabad’s “Chief Rabbi of Russia,” Berel Lazar’s citizenship issues.

It seems Putin gave Lazar special citizenship in 2000, opening the door for Chabad a few days later to make Lazar “Chief Rabbi of Russia,” in a bid to force out Putin critic Vladimir Gussinsky and the real chief rabbi, Adolph Shayevitch.

Very recently, Lazar has for the first time been mildly critical of the Putin regime’s weak response to antisemitic incidents, including a knife attack at a Chabad synagogue that wounded nine Jews, some very seriously. This “citizenship inquiry” may be retaliation for Lazar’s belated and weak attempt to speak up.

Look for Putin to “save” Lazar from this “trouble” and Lazar to extoll the virtues of Putin. Otherwise, expect Lazar to spend some time in New York or Israel on an enforced “vacation,” like Moscow’s Chief Rabbi, Pinkhas Goldschmidt.

Could The Putin-Lazar Romance Be Over?

Haaretz is reporting that a Russian politician with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked the Interior Ministry to investigate the citizenship of Chabad’s “chief rabbi of Russia” Berel Lazar. Lazar holds US, Italian, Israel and Russian citizenship – at least for the time being.

Putin The Plargiarist

The Week Magazine reports:

[Russian] President Vladimir Putin copied huge portions of his 1997 Ph.D. economics dissertation from an American textbook, the Brookings Institution, a U.S. think tank, has found. Putin, at the time a little-known apparatchik, wrote “The Strategic Planning of Regional Resources Under the Formation of Market Relations” to boost his academic credentials after he was appointed to serve in the Kremlin under then President Boris Yeltsin. “I calculate that there are more than 16 pages worth of text taken verbatim,” Brookings Institution analyst Clifford Gaddy said. The Kremlin refused to comment on the allegation.

Funny. If I remember correctly, Tzemach Atlas reported that Putin’s lap dog and Chabad “chief rabbi” of Russia Berel Lazar, claimed a fake masters degree from Chabad’s Rabbinical College of America in Morristown, NJ. Morristown does not offer masters programs. Shortly after being called on this by Atlas, Chabad removed the masters claim from its FSU website.

Putin Cuts Gas To Ukraine In Bid To Freeze Democracy In Central Europe

Russia’s neo-Stalinist president and Chabad "chief rabbi" of Russia Berel Lazar’s good friend Vladimir Putin has cut all gas to Ukraine, potentially freezing to death many elderly people there and in the Baltic states. Ukraine’s crime? Democracy.

First, Kevin Kerr of MarketWatch reports from Estonia on the potential for this to happen, 11 days before it actually took place:

…Like most of the Baltic countries, Estonia has relied on Russia to provide a vast amount of its energy supply throughout the years. But that relationship has soured somewhat with Estonia. A far worse situation is brewing in some of the former Soviet Union States.

For example, the Ukraine has been a thorn in the side of Russia and the Putin administration. Now Russia is pursuing a geopolitical goal to block Ukraine from joining NATO and the E.U. something that Ukraine certainly wants.

Turning off the spigot and turning up the heat

The Kremlin is well aware that energy is a tried and tested political weapon and they are ready and willing to use it. When I turned on the evening news last night from Russia, watching from my home in Estonia, the first three stories pertained to the Putin administration, energy and the cold, cold winter.

The Kremlin is seeking control over pricing of the vast pipelines that crisscross the Ukraine. These vital pipelines are at present the primary gateway for the wealthy European market. The Kremlin has Rubles on the brain and sees Ukraine as a major impediment to the riches that lie beyond.

Other former Soviet Union States like Belarus have capitulated to Russia and continue to given Russia a cut-rate, bargain basement deal. As a reward Belarus will continue to pay only $49 a thousand cubic meters for Russian Gas in 2006.

On the contrary, the defiant Ukraine is getting socked with an increase from $50 per thousand cubic feet to a whopping $160-$230 price tag in 2006. Other countries feeling the energy pinch include: Moldova ($150-$160), Estonia ($120-$125), Lithuania ($120-125) and Latvia ($120-$125).

It could be a very long and cold winter for many of these countries citizens that live on fixed incomes. Capitalism has provided many comforts not seen during communism and war, but has also brought with it the growing pains of a free market economy.

In an attempt to further legitimize its position, the Putin government and the state owned Rosneft, (formerly Yukos), is seeking out Western leaders to put a better face on the situation and encourage Western investment in the major Russian energy company.

‘Bushneft or bust’

When the Kremlin seized Yukos and jailed its leader Mikhail Khordokovsky in Siberia for "tax evasion," the wheels of change were set in motion, and they continue to roll on.

Another major shift just occurred as ousted German leader Gerhard Schröder, plagued by unemployment in his country, decided not to become a statistic himself and accepted a job in a top post with Gazprom the giant energy company in Russia.

Ironically Gazprom is behnd an ambitious pipeline project between Russia and Germany that Schröder championed while in office. Actually, it´s not that ironic, just disturbing.

In a similar move, the Kremlin is purportedly trying to entice former U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans to come on board as the new chairman of Rosneft. Clearly all of this is an attempt to calm the fears of investors from the West ahead of the Rosneft initial public offering set for 2006.

"This is the latest Kremlin strategy to co-opt and hush the Western nations by making them complicit in its crimes… When everyone is guilty, then no one is guilty goes the logic… Oil, gas, politics, intimidation, and repression are all mixed together," observed chess master and political dissident Garry Kasparov In a recent Wall Street Journal article.…

Now, today’s London Telegraph breaks the news – Russia is freezing out Ukarine:

Russia took Europe to the brink of a winter energy crisis yesterday when it carried out a Cold War-style threat and halted gas deliveries to Ukraine, the main conduit for exports to the West.

With a quarter of its gas supplied by Russia, Europe is facing serious disruption and price rises for as long as the dispute rumbles on.

Moscow turned off the tap at 10am after Ukraine refused to sign a new contract with the Russian state monopoly Gazprom quadrupling prices.

Critics of the Kremlin say the rise was punishment for the Orange Revolution in 2004 which brought in a westward-leaning government that promised to remove Ukraine from the Kremlin’s sphere of influence.

The American State Department said that "such an abrupt stop creates insecurity in the energy sector in the region and raises serious questions about the use of energy to exert political pressure".

The European Union has called an emergency meeting of energy ministers on Wednesday.

Britain is less vulnerable than mainland Europe because it does not receive direct supplies from the former Soviet bloc.

But as other countries seek to shore up their reserves, less gas is likely to be pumped through the pipeline that links the Continent with Britain. That could mean higher prices and, if there is no quick resolution, possible breaks in supplies.

The European Commission says that most countries have between a week and two months’ emergency reserves.

Ukraine has upset Moscow by pushing to join the EU and Nato. However, Russia insists that the price rise merely brings Ukraine in line with the price that most of Europe pays: about $240 per 1,000 cubic metres.

President Vladimir Putin adopted almost warlike terms when he spoke on television as the hours ticked by before the ultimatum expired.

"If no clear response [from Kiev] follows, we will conclude that our proposal has been rejected," he said.

If Ukraine’s reserves run out, it could be tempted to siphon off gas intended for other countries. It claims the right to do so in lieu of transit fees.

The cut-off coincided with Russia assuming the rotating presidency of the G8 leading industrialised nations.

In Britain, millions of families started paying higher fuel prices yesterday.

Scottish and Southern Energy raised prices by 13.6 per cent, adding approximately £50 to the average annual bill, while electricity charges will go up by 12 per cent, or about £30 a year.

Npower puts its rises into effect today, adding 14.5 per cent for gas and 13.6 per cent for electricity.

This thug is Berel Lazar‘s close friend. Lazar shills for him. Lazar even intercedes for him in Washington.

Wake up Jews – Chabad is your enemy.

UPDATE: Russia restores gas to central and western Europe – but not the Ukraine. The Financial Times reports after the jump.

Update On Rabbi Goldschmidt Ban

Forum 18 reports:

Pinchas Goldschmidt, Moscow’s Swiss-born Chief Rabbi, is now back in
the Russian capital after having his one-year multi-entry visa revoked
without explanation on 27 September (see F18News 6 October 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=668). Speaking to Forum 18 following his 8 December return to Russia, Rabbi
Goldschmidt said that he now holds a one-month single-entry religious
work visa supported by an invitation from "one of the Jewish
communities." Goldschmidt’s Moscow Jewish Religious Community is
affiliated to the Congress of Jewish Religious Communities and
Organisations of Russia (known as KEROOR).

Rabbi Goldschmidt confirmed to Forum 18 on 16 December that he thus has
to leave Russia again in early January, but added that he hopes to
re-enter holding a one-year multi-entry religious work visa. He
declined to comment on the possible reasons for his September
deportation.

Immediately following that incident, there were suggestions in the
Russian media that it might be linked with the Moscow rabbi’s
possession of a business rather than a religious work visa. A faxed
reply from the Russian Foreign Ministry to Forum 18’s 29 November query
about his predicament (see F18News 30 November 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=697)
appears to support this view. Dated 5 December, it maintains that
Goldschmidt visited Russia on business visas supported by invitations
from "various commercial structures" from 2003 – in particular, the
SA-SEV "financial-trade" company during 2004-05. According to the
Russian tourism website turist.ru, SA-SEV is a Moscow-based limited
company which received licences to offer tour agency and tour operator
services in April 2002.

Pointing out that his wife Dara teaches in a Jewish school in Moscow,
Rabbi Goldschmidt maintained to Forum 18 that his annulled visa had not
been supported by a business as such, but an organisation offering
services to educational institutions.

The Foreign Ministry Information and Press Department’s assistant
director Mikhail Troyansky, however, maintains that, while holding
business visas, Goldschmidt "actually visited Russia to conduct
professional religious activity," a fact confirmed in writing by the
Swiss Embassy, Adolf Shayevich ("the Chief Rabbi of Russia according to
KEROOR") and his own public appearances as Chief Rabbi of Moscow. As a
result, continues Troyansky, Goldschmidt "repeatedly violated" Article
26, Part 2 of the 1996 law on entry to and exit from the Russian
Federation, which states that foreign citizens may be barred from
entering the country if they "submit false documentation or knowingly
provide false information about themselves or the purpose of their
visit." This, according to the Foreign Ministry’s reply, is the reason
why Goldschmidt was prevented from entering Russia.

Troyansky concludes, however, that all bars on Rabbi Goldschmidt’s
travel to Russia have been lifted. "Goldschmidt may obtain a visa at
any Russian consulate by presenting all the necessary documentation,
including an invitation from a Russian religious organisation issued in
accordance with the legally prescribed procedure via the Interior
Ministry." He duly received his one-month visa on 6 December.

Lev Krichevsky, Moscow correspondent for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
(JTA), reported a quite different reason for Rabbi Goldschmidt’s
expulsion. In a 22 November JTA article, he noted that, according to
Russia’s Interior Ministry, Rabbi Goldschmidt was being kept out of the
country "for national security reasons." Contacted by Forum 18 on 9
December, Krichevsky confirmed that a 9 November Interior Ministry
official letter he saw – to which he no longer had access – explicitly
referred to Article 27, Part 1 of the 1996 law on entry to and exit
from Russia as the reason for Goldschmidt’s visa annulment. This
provision indeed states that foreign citizens may be prevented from
entering Russia "for the purposes of ensuring state security."

While a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry told Russia’s Interfax news
agency on 28 September that they were "examining the circumstances"
connected with the annulment of Rabbi Goldschmidt’s visa, the Interior
Ministry is qualified to comment on the case as it took over the
handling of foreign religious workers’ visa applications from the
Foreign Ministry at the end of 2002.

Tankred Golenpolsky, editor of the International Jewish Newspaper,
speculated to Forum 18 in early October that Rabbi Goldschmidt’s
expulsion may actually have been connected with a property dispute
between Moscow’s Choral Synagogue and the Russian Jewish Congress under
its president since November 2004, [Chabad-affiliated oligarch] Vladimir Sluzker (see F18News 6
October 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=668). On 10 November [non-Chabad oligarch] Vyacheslav Kantor was elected president of the Russian Jewish Congress in place of Sluzker.

Rabbi Goldschmidt is the 53rd foreign religious worker – and the first
Jew – known to Forum 18 to have been denied entry to Russian since
March 1998 (see F18News 7 September 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=644).

The Russian authorities’ expulsion of foreign religious workers is not
usually explained. However, Jeffrey, Susan and Jordan Wollman, a US
evangelical missionary family previously based in Kostroma, were
informed by the Foreign Ministry in July 2002 that they had been denied
visas the same month specifically under Article 27, Part 1 of the 1996
law on entry to and exit from Russia. Without specifying which part,
the Foreign Ministry subsequently stated that the visa of Irkutsk-based
Polish Catholic bishop Jerzy Mazur was revoked in April 2002 "strictly
in accordance with" Article 27, and that Canadian Salvation Army
officer Geoff Ryan, based until September 2000 in Rostov-on-Don, was
barred from travelling to Russia under the same provision. A
Krasnodar-based lawyer representing Swedish evangelical missionary Leo
Martensson, whose Russian visa was revoked in September 2002, was
reportedly told by the Foreign Ministry in early 2004 that he posed a
security risk.

Rabbi Goldschmidt’s case demonstrates that it remains unclear what
foreign religious personnel are entitled to do in Russia. Officially
employed as a computer studies teacher, US citizen Craig Rucin was
involved in unpaid religious work in his spare time when deported from
Udmurtia in 2001. Officially a religious worker with the Church of
Christ in Volgograd, by contrast, US citizen Charles Landreth was
ordered to leave Russia by local police in September 1999 on the
grounds that he was breaking the law by working in orphanages and
"having social interaction outside church activities."