VZCZCXYZ0005
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHMO #0774/01 0861415
ZNR UUUUU ZZH (CCY AD4877F5 MSI0728-695)
R 271415Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2591
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHXD/MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS MOSCOW 000774 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
C O R R E C T E D COPY CAPTION 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR PREL SOCI KIRF RS
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR KENNEDY VISITS MOSCOW IN ADVANCE OF 
2009 PRAGUE CONFERENCE 
 
¶1. (SBU)  Summary.  Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues 
Ambassador J. Christian Kennedy visited Moscow from March 22 
to 25 to meet with Russian counterparts in advance of the 
June 2009 Prague Conference on Holocaust Era Assets. 
Ambassador Kennedy liaised with GOR representatives, NGO 
activists, Jewish community leaders, and art experts to pave 
the way for the conference, encouraging a recommitment to the 
Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art (outlined in 
the 1998 Washington Conference).  Discussions revealed that 
while GOR interlocutors expressed goodwill and interest in 
cooperation, public sensitivity about World War II 
remuneration remained high.  Jewish leaders expressed the 
need to navigate carefully any proposed property restitution 
to avoid an increase in anti-Semitism.  Ambassador Kennedy 
also visited the Schneersohn Collection and discussed the 
importance to the Chabad community.  End Summary. 
 
Shvydkoy Cooperative Ahead of Prague Conference 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶2. (SBU)  Ambassador Kennedy met with Special Consultant to 
the Russian President on Communications and Mass Media 
Mikhail Shvydkoy on March 23 to exchange viewpoints before 
formal negotiations at the Prague Conference in June 2009. 
Former Russian Minister of Culture Shvydkoy agreed with 
Ambassador Kennedy that historical revisionism was extremely 
detrimental to Holocaust education, proposing this subject as 
the focus point for discussions in Prague.  He suggested that 
property restitution issues would not be appropriate for the 
conference, preferring constructive talks on improving 
universal "spiritual values" related to the sufferings of the 
Holocaust.  Moreover, Shvydkoy stressed that any public acts 
of restitution -- including the return of art and books taken 
by Soviet forces from the Nazi regime -- would cause a 
"public scandal" and must be avoided at all costs.  He 
explained that all things connected to World War II in Russia 
remained "very sensitive," and common sense dictated a very 
deliberate approach to such issues.  He noted that 
discussions on property restitution should not progress until 
parties created and shared detailed inventories of the 
disputed items, but conceded that progress could be made on 
the Schneersohn Collection in the future. 
 
Schneersohn Collection, Document Sharing 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU)  Ambassador Kennedy met with Russian State Library 
(RSL) Deputy Director General Nina Khakhaleva on March 24 to 
discuss opportunities for cooperation on shared Holocaust-era 
archives, specifically regarding Nazi police and deportation 
records, slave-enforced labor, and displaced persons.  While 
acknowledging its importance, Khakhaleva noted the difficulty 
and cost of document sharing, commenting on RSL's current 
painful transition from a paper-based catalog system to an 
electronic system.  She also added that the Russian 
Historical Military Archives received all files obtained 
during campaigns against the Nazis, saying that the RSL was 
not in a position to share this information.  Ambassador 
Kennedy informed Khakhaleva that the United States would 
rotate into the presidency of the International Tracking 
Service (ITS) in May 2009, and hoped to advance the proposal 
of the creation of a network allowing scholars to search all 
related archives.  Khakhaleva responded with interest, asking 
Ambassador Kennedy for a concrete proposal on how the Russian 
government could cooperate with the ITS. 
 
¶4. (SBU)  Khakhaleva escorted Ambassador Kennedy to meet RSL 
Oriental Center Director Sergey Kukushkin for a viewing of 
the Schneersohn Collection.  On Ambassador Kennedy's inquiry 
about the Collection, Khakhaleva commented that the 
Schneersohn Collection had no relation to the Holocaust, but 
agreed that the Chabad community held these works in high 
regard.  Ambassador Kennedy stressed the importance of 
safeguarding the collection.  Khakhaleva told Ambassador 
Kennedy that the RSL did not rule out the possibility of 
digitizing them in the future, and would allow anyone 
(including Chabad) to visit the Collection during business 
hours.  Kukushkin showed Ambassador Kennedy samples from the 
Collection and elaborated on the Oriental Center's catalog 
system, which listed the Collection's oldest book as being 
written in the 16th century. 
 
Jewish Community Leaders Sensitive to Property Issues 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶5. (SBU)  Jewish community leaders offered different views on 
prospects for the return of property, Judaica, and archives 
to communities throughout Russia.  Federation of Jewish 
Communities of Russia (FEOR) Director Aleksandr Boroda told 
Ambassador Kennedy on March 23 that the GOR viewed the 
transport of any Holocaust-era archives outside the country 
 
as unacceptable, but did see some progress domestically.  He 
believed that the most likely path for obtaining Jewish 
community records would be through long-term loans from the 
GOR, which would provide de facto full use of the documents 
in lieu of ownership.  As with any issue involving the Jewish 
community, he noted the need to avoid the public eye as any 
favoritism shown towards Russian Jewry could stir 
anti-Semitism. 
 
¶6. (SBU)  With regards to the return of precious Judaica, 
Boroda said that the GOR required beneficiary communities to 
have a suitable museum or storage facility to preserve any 
state valuables.  Russian Jewish Congress (RJC) Director 
Yuriy Kanner told Ambassador Kennedy on March 25 that he 
believed the Moscow Jewish community could easily produce the 
necessary funds for such a facility, but long-term financial 
questions could only be solved through the creation of a 
foundation.  Concerning property, Boroda mentioned that the 
GOR had a program to return synagogues to the Jewish 
community, but there was no money in the budget for the 
program.  Additionally, communities that received religious 
buildings from the government did not have sufficient funding 
for their maintenance. 
 
Ambassador Allowed to See Disputed Art 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU)  Ambassador Kennedy visited the Pushkin State Museum 
of Fine Art on March 24 to verify the condition of two works 
of art claimed by AmCit families.  The meeting, initially 
refused by the museum and the Ministry of Culture, was 
arranged shortly after Ambassador Kennedy's discussions with 
Shvydkoy, suggesting the latter's interest in facilitating 
better relations.  Deputy Director and Curator for the 
Pushkin Museum, Tatiana Potapova, blocked off a section of 
the museum for a private viewing, during which she and other 
museum experts conversed with Ambassador Kennedy about the 
style and condition of the works. 
 
¶8. (SBU)  Ambassador Kennedy also met with Russian art dealer 
and expert Andrei Ruzhnikov at his gallery below the Moscow 
Ritz-Carlton.  Ruzhnikov boasted of his extensive knowledge 
of the Russian art market, and provided several anecdotes 
about his connections with high-powered and corrupt Russian 
officials to validate his claims.  After a private tour of 
his high-security showroom that included an original Renoir 
painting and extensive collections of tsarist-era enamel art, 
he claimed no knowledge of rumors that art looted from Nazi 
camps at the end of World War II existed in Russia, saying 
that he "would have heard about them" by now. 
 
Anti-Semitism: Not Official Policy, but Has Deep Roots 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶9. (SBU)  Ambassador Kennedy met with SOVA Center Deputy 
Director Galina Kozhevnikova on March 24 to discuss the 
current state of xenophobia in Russia, including an 
assessment of Russian anti-Semitism.  Kozhevnikova explained 
that while no official policy of anti-Semitism exists in 
Russia (FEOR's Boroda agreed), most extremist-nationalist 
groups based their ideology on anti-Semitism even though they 
actively avoided using anti-Semitic slogans.  She noted that 
Jews in Russia held fewer leadership roles in government and 
the financial market than in the past, pushing negative 
perceptions of Jews onto the backburner of phobias.  Some 
nationalist groups like the Movement Against Illegal 
Immigration (DPNI) and Slavic Union began using anti-Semitic 
propaganda more often in 2006, but with little public 
resonance.  She added that the GOR actively prosecuted 
anti-Semitic activities (Note: she said it was easy for law 
enforcement to recognize anti-Semitic acts), deterring groups 
from espousing such comments.  Both Boroda and Kozhevnikova 
differentiated between violent xenophobes, who have committed 
crimes against Jews in Russia, and "household anti-Semites" 
who regularly discriminate against Jews. 
 
¶10. (SBU)  On the subject of Holocaust education in Russia, 
Kozhevnikova told Ambassador Kennedy that teachers spent 
very little time, if any, covering the Holocaust in secondary 
schools.  Moscow Bureau for Human Rights Director Aleksandr 
Brod told Ambassador Kennedy on March 25 that the GOR avoided 
focusing on the Jewish Holocaust as a specific subject in the 
educational system, saying any preferential attention given 
to one genocide would unfairly lessen the suffering of the 
other groups liquidated during the Stalin era.  While the GOR 
prohibited officials from making anti-Semitic statements, 
several authors published anti-Semitic books every year, 
selling over 500,000 copies at book fairs in Russia annually. 
 Many of these books, according to Brod, are blessed by local 
Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) priests.  Boroda added that the 
resurgence of the ROC has generated an increase of 
 
anti-Semitism, especially in the number of print publications 
lambasting Jewish culture, but expected that the demographic 
crisis would turn more Russians against Muslims in the future. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶11. (SBU)  Shvydkoy's interest in a "unified" position at the 
Prague Conference suggests that there is room for negotiation 
on key Holocaust-era issues.  Domestic sensitivity to issues 
related to the Great Patriotic War, however, limits GOR 
flexibility just as the fear of increasing anti-Semitism 
limits Jewish community efforts. 
 
¶12. (U)  Ambassador Kennedy did not have an opportunity to 
clear this message. 
BEYRLE