• by IPS Correspondents (united nations)
• Wednesday, November 09, 1994
• Inter Press Service

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 09 (IPS) - Ultranationalist Russian polititian Vladimir Zhirinovsky blamed the Jewish community for his nation's ills Wednesday, accusing them of financing organised crime.

At a press conference organised by the United Nations (U.N.) Press Association, he said, "I cannot say that the Jews are playing a positive role in Russia, in fact quite the opposite."

Zhirinovsky blamed the Jewish community with bringing about the fall of the Soviet Union, adding that the new business structure in the country is in their hands.

The Russian politician denied rumours that he was Jewish himself, commenting, "if you want me to have a Jewish father, you will have to find me one."

But the Jewish community were not the only ones under attack. "United Nations policy was far more positive 25 years ago...I don't like the way the U.N. interferes in internal affairs. I don't like the embargoes on Libya, Yugoslavia or Iraq," he said.

He also accused Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev of following U.S. policies and criticised President Boris Yeltsin for wanting to send troops into Georgia and Tadjikistan to interfere in their internal affairs.

Zhirinovsky denied stories in the Turkish press that he had worked as an agent of the Russian secret service (KGB), saying, "I was never a KGB agent. I would like to have been, but the KGB only recruited communists." He was mistakenly arrested by the Turkish police 25 years ago, but soon released.

He revealed his intention of running for President in 1996 as, in his view, Yeltsin "makes too many mistakes."

This is not an unforeseeable situation, for - while he cuts a contraversial profile - he received 23 percent of the vote in the Russian parliamentary elections last January.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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