Election earns Jew ticket from Ukrainian jail

MOSCOW, April 23 (JTA) — A Ukrainian Jew has earned himself a get-out-of- jail-free card: election to Parliament. By winning a constituency in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev in the March 29 parliamentary elections, Mikhail Brodsky gained immunity from any prosecution. Brodsky was arrested in Kiev shortly before the elections and accused of illegal property deals. He has denied the charge. Brodsky has said his arrest was political, and that articles critical of the regime in the Kievskie Vedomosti daily newspaper, in which he owns a major share, won him enemies in the government. Brodsky and his newspaper have been frequent targets of anti-Semitic rhetoric. Two months ago, a mainstream Kiev daily accused Kievskie Vedomosti of “pro-Israeli sympathies” and attempts to propagate “Israeli spiritual values” in Ukraine. In response, Brodsky accused his political rivals of using anti-Semitism as a tool in the election campaign. After his release, Brodsky — one of 20 Jews who won parliamentary seats in the elections — said he would start work as an independent deputy in the 450-seat Parliament. The Communist Party and its leftist allies won the largest number of seats in the elections. Ukraine’s president, Leonid Kuchma, has vowed to continue with the country’s market-oriented reforms in spite of the possible opposition from the new Rada, as the Ukrainian parliament is known.