As Chabad's 'chief rabbi' of Russia Berel Lazar meets with noted antisemites Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Dmitri Rogozin (the heads of two Russian nationalist parties that disseminate anti-Semitic propaganda) to a storm of Israeli protest, Russia moves further away from democracy on a related front:
The lower house of Parliament gave preliminary approval to legislation that would require tens of thousands of Russian organizations to register with the Ministry of Justice. It would also impose restrictions on their ability to accept donations or hire foreigners and prohibit foreign organizations from opening branches in Russia.…
Although some of the bill's supporters defended it as an effort to bring order to the registration of 450,000 private groups, others have said it was aimed at preventing foreign efforts to support political opposition movements, like the [pro-democracy] one that swept to power after the "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine last fall. The legislation follows sharply worded remarks by President Vladimir V. Putin and the director of the Federal Security Service, the K.G.B's successor, that foreign organizations often undermined Russian interests.…
"Let us resolve the internal political problems of Russia ourselves," Mr. Putin said this summer, criticizing nongovernmental organizations involved in what he called political activities.
Mr. Putin has long faced criticism for strengthening his political authority, despite his avowed commitment to democracy, and the legislation prompted still more criticism.
"This is the last sector of civil society that has not fallen under government control," Aleksandr B. Petrov, the deputy director in Moscow for the international group Human Rights Watch, said at a news conference held Tuesday in hopes of persuading the Parliament to reject or at least amend the legislation.
The critics of the law say that Russia's restrictions would go beyond those imposed on nongovernmental organizations by most of the developed world, including the other members of the Group of 8, of which Russia is a part.
A legal analysis by the nongovernmental groups says that the law would put Russia in line with [repressive] countries like Turkmenistan …
Earlier this year, the director of the Federal Security Service, Nikolai Patrushev, accused Western organizations - including the Peace Corps and the British medical charity Merlin - of being fronts for espionage. "Under the cover of implementing humanitarian and educational programs in Russian regions, they lobby for the interests of certain countries and gather classified information on a wide range of issues," Mr. Patrushev told members of Parliament in May, referring to private organizations.
His remarks prompted unusually strong public rebukes from the United States and Britain, but the legislation he called for at the time became the basis for what Parliament adopted Wednesday despite a further outpouring of criticism once the bill appeared on the agenda. It passed by a vote of 370 to 18. Three members abstained, while 56 did not vote.
President Bush raised the subject during his meeting last Friday with Mr. Putin in Pusan, South Korea.…
Two former members of Congress, John Edwards and Jack Kemp, who together are overseeing a task force about American policy on Russian issues for the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote to Mr. Bush last week urging him to protest "in the frankest possible terms."
"It would roll back pluralism in Russia and curtail contact between our societies," they wrote.…
This also explains the expulsion and ban of Moscow's non-Chabad chief rabbi Pinkhas Goldschmidt, and Lazar's complete silence on the issue. Lazar, it seems, has never met a dictator he didn't like. Thugs like the company of other thugs. Chabad should be ashamed.