Anti-Jewish Pogroms in North Caucasus ‘Dress Rehearsal’ for Anti-Russian Ones, Grachev Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 31 – In response to the attacks on Jews and Israel in Daghestan and other North Caucasian republics, Vladimir Putin assembled his security team to try to figure out how to regain control of something his policies had produced, a matter of urgency, Denis Grachev says, because these anti-Jewish pogroms are clearly “a dress rehearsal” for anti-Russian ones.

            According to the Russian commentator, Putin was “not happy” because the kind of anti-Semitism he favors is strictly “controlled and directed towards strictly limited goals” such as attacking “foreign agents” or making fun of people like Chubais; but what has appeared in the North Caucasus is something else “wild and unbridled” (publizist.ru/blogs/33/47066/-).

            And what is undoubtedly most worrisome to the Kremlin leader is that the anti-Semitism on offer in the North Caucasus is “not even about the Jews.” Instead, Grachev argues, it is “just a shooting exercise and preparation for an anti-Russian pogrom” in the region. “A dress rehearsal,” if you will.

            “The Kremlin cannot fail to understand this,” the commentator says. It is clear that they do; and that is why they are talking about such draconian measures. “But it appears they won’t succeed” in their attempts to put this genie back in the bottle. “As Gorbachev once said, ‘The process has begun.’”