Russian Jews Join Power Group Warning About Election Climate

Several prominent Jews have joined a group of Russia’s most powerful businessmen in warning that the country’s hotly contested June presidential elections could lead to civil war.

The group of businessmen released a statement last Friday saying that Russian society is deeply divided and calling for a compromise between the country’s competing political forces.

The statement, published in newspapers across the political spectrum, was signed by 13 top people in the Russian business and financial community, including six Jews, two of whom are leaders of the recently created Russian Jewish Congress.

The vague appeal did not offer specific recommendations about how the compromise could be carried out, but it strongly implied that President Boris Yeltsin and his main rival, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, should work out an agreement on major policies before the June 16 election to prevent the country from falling into chaos.

The businessmen warned that if the Communists win the election, they may try to demand “ideological revenge,” reflecting their fears that a Communist victory could lead to a rollback of the country’s economic and political reformist policies.

But the signatories, who have been known for their unconditional support of Yeltsin, also criticized the Kremlin for the ongoing war in Chechnya and for the adverse social impact of some of the government’s economic reforms during the past four years.

Among those signing the appeal were Vladimir Goussinsky, president of the Russian Jewish Congress, and Mikhail Fridman, the organization’s vice president.

They, along with the others signing the statement, had amassed huge fortunes in the years since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Yevgeny Satanovsky, a member of the RJC’s presidium, said he was surprised to see the list of signatories, which he said included representatives of financial and industrial groups that “had always been at odds with each other.”

“These are leading representatives of the financial community, automobile, gas, oil and munitions industries,” Satanovsky said.

He said he could not imagine these figures signing a joint statement under any other circumstance.

Yeltsin and Zyuganov have been running neck and neck in the polls.

In their statement, without referring directly to either Yeltsin or Zyuganov, the authors warned that regardless of who wins the election, he will be a minority president.

Without some sort of compromise, they wrote, the “spirit of violence and discord” will be the only victor in the elections.

“The acrimony of opposing political forces is so great” that either Yeltsin or Zyuganov “can rule only by embarking on the road toward civil war and the disintegration of Russia,” the statement said.

The authors of the appeal referred to Russian nationalism as one of the most serious problems confronting society.

“Over one-half of Russian kids are children of mixed marriages. We all are Russians, and any attempt to divide us into pure-blooded [Russians] and non- Russians contradicts the very idea of the state, which is to bring together the peoples of Russia,” the statement said.

The authors warned that Russian businessmen “have the necessary resources and will to influence excessively unprincipled and uncompromising politicians.”

One of the signatories, Boris Berezovsky, said in a television interview that he and his counterparts had just one tool to carry out their compromise plan, but this tool was “of no small importance — money.”

On Tuesday, Zyuganov met with the 13 businessmen to discuss their concerns.

No details of the meeting were released, but Zyuganov told reporters afterward, “I understand their concern, their worries about the fate of the country’s economy.”

“We have always been in favor of a dialogue,” he added.