For Immediate Release January 31, 2008
Contact: Nickolai Butkevich (202) 641-7420

WASHINGTON – U.S. Reps. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Ron Klein (D-Fla.) today introduced bipartisan legislation to curb the rise of antisemitic and racist violence in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.

"When the Soviet Union fell, we thought the fight for persecuted minorities ended," said Kirk, past chair of the Congressional Taskforce on Antisemitism and who played an integral role in the Soviet Jewry movement as an aide to former U.S. Rep. John Porter (R-Ill.). "Unfortunately, widespread discrimination persists against religious and ethnic minorities. The international community needs a wake up call that Jews and other minorities are under attack in the Former Soviet Union."

The Former Soviet Union Minority Relief Act of 2008 would strengthen rule of law and democracy initiatives in Ukraine, undermine hate speech in Russia and Belarus through international broadcasting and allow for emergency evacuations from Belarus or Russia if the need emerges.

"There should be no mistaking the threat to democracy and national security posed by today's gathering global storm of antisemitic and xenophobic hate crimes and propaganda, aided and abetted by patently corrupt and dysfunctional criminal justice systems," Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union National Director Micah Naftalin said in testimony before the Helsinki Commission last November. "The very existence of the impunity that perpetrators of hate crimes and discrimination enjoy, as we document here, is a monstrous violation of citizens' human rights, as guaranteed by international treaties."

"UCSJ applauds Reps. Kirk and Klein for yet another of their contributions to the cause of democracy, rule of law and the plight of Jews and all those ethnic and religious minorities that suffer from nationalistic and neo-Nazi hate crimes across the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus," Naftalin said. "This initiative is especially forward looking because it expertly blends the causes of human rights and religious freedom with important elements of foreign policy and national security."

Marillyn Tallman, director of the Chicago Action for Soviet Jewry, hailed the legislation as a "watershed moment" in the fight to stop antisemitism in the Former Soviet Union.

"We applaud Reps. Kirk and Klein for their effort to raise awareness of the plight of Jews in the Former Soviet Union," Tallman said. "The public needs to know there are continuing crises that require constant attention of the international community."

To read a UCSJ summary on recent events in Ukraine and Russia, go here: http://www.fsumonitor.com/stories/012708KirkSummary.pdf

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