Rare Russian article on anti-semitic incident

By Slava Tsukerman

There is no official state anti-Semitism in contemporary Russia. So until recently there were no publications about substantial acts of anti-Semitism. But lately the political tension and mutual hatred in Russian society keeps growing and it was inevitable that such an act should finally happen. And it happened on December 11, in St. Petersburg. The event became one of the main issues of Russian news last week.

Here is said to have occurred:

There was a small LGBT demonstration in the city in support of social protests. About 10 people participated in it. The demonstrators carried such posters as “For freedom of speech” and “Homophobes are enemies of working people”.

The demonstration was covered by media. Among journalists was David Frankel, a young Jewish photo–correspondent of a popular Russian newspaper “Commersant”.

In one of the city squares demonstrators and press unexpectedly discovered another social gathering: meeting of activists of so called NLM – National Liberation Movement.

NLM is a non-government social organization created by and headed by a member of State Duma Eugenie Fedorov.

Eugenie Fedorov and his followers believe that since the fall of communism Russia, in reality, has been occupied by the USA. They believe that contemporary Russian constitution is created with the help of American consultants in order to enslave Russians. All the “Western values” are forced on Russians, while Russian mentality cannot accept these values. NLM activists believe that most of the members of Russian government are American secret agents and traitors, the worst enemies of Russia.

At the first look NLM is an extremist anti-state organization. Yet there is one feature, which makes the organization legal and even popular. This feature is a belief in impeccability of Vladimir Putin. According to NLM Putin is the only person who is fighting against all the traitors and foreign agents. He is the only hope of Russia and helping him in his struggle is the sacred duty of every Russian. The members of NLM see themselves as a vanguard in this struggle.

When David Frankel unexpectedly discovered the meeting of NLM, his attention was attracted by a picturesque activist in a fur hat.

Frankel tried to photograph the activist. The activist hit Frankel’s camera with his hand and then kicked the photographer with his foot. Other NLM activists surrounded the photographer and started cursing him, calling him ”little kike”. All that was videotaped by one of the TV corespondents, covering the LGBT demonstration.

Frankel asked a standing nearby policeman to help him, but the policeman refused. The photographer called emergency police number asking for help. The police car arrived very fast. The policemen refused to arrest the NLM activist, who kicked the photographer, and the activist left. Then the policemen explained to Frankel that NLM activists had called the police Precinct blaming the photographer for disruption of their event. The photographer was arrested and taken to the precinct.

In the precinct nobody discussed Frankel’s complaint about the aggressive behavior of the member of NLM. Instead the policemen blamed the photographer for photographing LGBT demonstration and threaten that they would send him to psychiatric hospital in case he will not cooperative.

The telephone calls from the editor of the newspaper, for which Frankel worked, didn’t help. Attempts of the TV cameraman to show his videotape, that depicted the conflict of Frankel with NLM activists, also didn’t help. The policemen didn’t want to see the tape. The arrival of the young photographer’s father to the precinct was also disregarded by the police for some time.

David Frankel wrote about his adventure in his blog on the website of the “Echo of Moscow” radio station. Here is the translation of the end of the story:

“For a while, nothing was happening, then suddenly an ambulance appeared. The medics immediately seized my identification documents, I started to protest, and then they ordered me to move to another chair.

“I told them that I was sitting directly under the surveillance camera for security reasons and that’s why I did not want to change my position. Then they tried to move me with force. I resisted, so the doctor began to choke me, and two nurses started to twist my fingers and tied my hands. I never let them move me to the other chair. I remained sitting where I was. They also tried to take my bag with the camera, but I held it tight. I said that they would take it only over my dead body. ‘ It’s not a problem’ – they said. All this time I screamed and called for help, but the police laughed and videotaped me. Medics also whispered into my ear that they’ll ‘do me in’ and ‘squish my balls’ Medics laughed at the fact that I was Jewish, asking me about “Jewish Christmas” (what did they mean?) and joking about my circumcision.

“As I learned later, during the same time, deputy head of the precinct spoke in the lobby with my father. He tried to convince my dad that I was ‘a difficult boy’. He asked my father if I use alcohol and drugs. He said that I behaved inappropriately: all the time sitting in a fixed position and constantly trying to use the phone. The doctor later told my father that I was not taken to the psychiatric hospital only because he (the father) was in the office.

“After half an hour of my ‘my dialogue’ with the medics, the meaning of which I did not understand, I was finally untied and released from the precinct. The complaint of NLM against me had not been accepted by the police. I left the precinct with the heavy bruising of my neck and hands, scrapes and scratches on my fingers.”

Quite a few Russian sites reprinted David Frankel story. And that’s it. The story had no follow up. The stories like that never have a follow up in Russian media. I guess every Russian is sure that what happened with David Frankel cannot have any continuation by definition. Who would try to keep fighting against police or NLM? Only an insane person. And David Frankel should be happy that his father managed to prove that he is not insane.