Nationalists Obsess Over Medvedev's Roots

Nikolai Bondarik fears that there will be dire consequences for Russia if the heavily favored front-runner in the presidential election, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, wins as expected on March 2.

With Medvedev in power, Russia's natural resources will be plundered by foreign investors, Moscow will alienate its traditional Arab allies, and tens of thousands of Israelis will become managers at key Russian institutions, "including the police, army and secret services," Bondarik said by telephone from St. Petersburg.

The reason for Bondarik's alarm: He is firmly convinced that Medvedev is Jewish.

"We are categorically against him because he is an ethnic Jew and does not conceal his sympathies toward Judaism," said Bondarik, leader of the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Party, an unregistered nationalist organization.

The conspiracy theory that Jews are plotting to seize power has always enjoyed an illustrious place in the history of Russian nationalism -- and it surfaced again when Medvedev, a candidate whose perceived Western leanings are distasteful to many nationalists, became the prohibitive favorite to succeed President Vladimir Putin.

There is no hard evidence that Medvedev has Jewish roots, and a spokeswoman for his campaign declined to answer a question about the subject.

Nationalists Obsess Over Medvedev's Roots