Viktor Anpilov, a radical Communist known for his anti-Semitic views, has been stripped of a key post in the fringe Russian Communist Workers Party.
The party is a member of the left-wing bloc that backed Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov in his failed bid for the presidency in the July 3 runoff.
Some members of the radical Workers Party said Anpilov had fallen into disfavor because of his anti-Semitic statements.
According to others in the party, Anpilov had engaged in financial improprieties.
A week before the first presidential vote in June, Anpilov, a former Soviet correspondent in Nicaragua and Cuba, said he might become minister of mass media in a Zyuganov government. “Most of those who appear on Russian television are people of Jewish descent,” he said at the time, promising he would take measures to rid the country’s television of Jews.
NOTE TO EDITORS: The following can be used as a Tisha B’Av feature.
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.
