Russian ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky appears to be firming his ties with right-wing hosts in Europe.
On Tuesday, Zhirinovsky, whose so-called Liberal Democratic Party stunned the world with its electoral success in this month’s Russian parliamentary elections, was in Munich, where he met with Gerhard Frey, the head of the German People’s Union.
The union is a well-known right-wing group whose newspaper questions the existence of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, a knowledgeable source said.
From Munich he traveled to the Austrian Alps, where he was the guest Wednesday of Edwin Neuwirth, an Austrian who is a veteran of the Nazi-era Waffen SS.
Neuwirth, a bankrupt timber dealer, hosted Zhirinovsky at a ski resort in the Austria Alps, according to reports.
Neuwirth, 67, told reporters at a news conference at the resort of Reichenfels, in Carinthia, that he met Zhirinovsky two years ago in Moscow.
Although he acknowledges holding right-wing views, Neuwirth denied he supports rightist activities.
A spokesperson at the Austrian Consulate here echoed this, saying there was no knowledge of Neuwirth’s current involvement in political activities.
Another source told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Neuwirth is aligned with “the rightwing circuit” in Austria.
The source said Neuwirth was a member of the Waffen SS as a teen-ager, from age 16 to 19, after his ethnic German family was driven out of Moldavia in 1940.
DENIES FASCIST ATTRIBUTES
Zhirinovsky said at the news conference in the Alpine resort that his trip — in fact, all his party’s needs — had been paid for by another member of the party, Alexei Vedenkin, who is described as a businessman.
Vedenkin, who would not indicate what kind of business he engages in, told reporters in Austria that “our task is to ensure” that the Liberal Democratic Party “is not devoid of funds.”
At the news conference, Zhirinovsky denied reports that he and his party are anti-Semitic and also disclaimed other fascist aims attributed to the party.
Alexander Shmukler, a Russian Jewish activist, recalls Zhirinovsky from the Jewish Cultural Club, Shalom, a group the KGB set up in the 1980s to quell criticism from around the world that Jewish culture was not permitted in the Soviet Union.
Shmukler maintained that Zhirinovsky, who is the son of a Jewish father, was not anti-Semitic, although he was constantly anti-Israel. But he said Russia’s Jews should go to Israel.
Following Zhirinovsky’s party’s strong showing at the Russian polls on Dec. 12, he gave an interview to the “MacNeil-Lehrer” report on public television in which he blamed Russia’s ills on “the West and the Jews.”
He then said he was not anti-Semitic but believes all Russia’s Jews should go to Israel.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
