A professor at a Tyumen, Russia university asserted her belief in the medieval accusation that Jews ritually murder Christian children and use their blood to bake matzo, according to a June 1, 2008 report by the Slavic Law Center. Worse, Professor Svetlana Shestakovaya's lecture was part of the state sponsored educational program "Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture" which has been introduced in Russian schools in several regions, at times as part of the compulsory curriculum. Human rights activists have criticized the original and still widely used textbook written by Alla Borodina for containing antisemitic and racist passages.

Shestakovaya, an assistant professor of sociology at Tyumen State Oil-Gas University, gave a series of lectures on the topic of "Sectarian Studies" in April 2008 in a course geared for future teachers of the "Fundamentals" curriculum.

She reportedly defined matzo as: "A Jewish Eucharist that uses a small quantity of blood of [Christian] Orthodox people whom they [the Jews] martyred... They use a special method for killing an Orthodox child or a saint, such as when the Tsar's family was killed... they were bled because a live person needs to be stabbed before he is dead, and while he dies, the blood comes out... That's why sometimes children go missing, it's the Jews...."

The professor didn't spare other religious confessions, attacking nearly every belief system known to man that does not conform to her exclusionary view of Russian Orthodoxy. In her words, Catholics are "a heresy," Protestants "pseudo-Christian sects," not just the usual targets of Orthodox extremists such as the Pentecostals ("the most destructive sect"), but even the generally more tolerated Lutherans ("Christianity in a distorted form"). She claimed that an "occult, evil spirt" inspired Mohammed to write the Koran, and criticized anyone who would say that Islam is a "good, just religion" as "betraying Christ."

One of Russia's chief rabbis, Beryl Lazar, recently expressed concern that the introduction of at times compulsory Christian theology courses in Russia is a threat to minorities. Several Muslim leaders made earlier statements echoing his worries. Whether or not Professor Shestakovaya's lectures adds fuel to the fire or gets ignored against the background of daily stories about rising xenophobia remains to be seen.

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