Ukraina valde Ryssland före EU - stora protester som följd, länkar i inlägg2

Gross anti-Semitic graffiti has appeared in Simferopol on the second day of the effective siege of the city by armed Russian-speakers in uniforms without any identifying marks.

The Ner Tamid Synagogue belonging to the Progressive Judaism Community had a foul piece of graffiti daubed on its outer wall. The words “Death to Jews”, with an offensive word used; are surrounded by a swastika, Celtic wolf’s hook and Wolfsangel.

The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress points out that the Wolfsangel painted is, in fact, a back-to-front image of the symbol normally used by Ukrainian radical nationalists.

Viacheslav Likhachev, an analyst who has long monitored anti-Semitism and xenophobia in Ukraine notes drily that this vandalism has suddenly appeared in a city under the control of unidentified pro-Russian separatists. He cannot recall anything of the kind during the three months of EuroMaidan protests in Lviv, Chernivtsi or Kyiv under Maidan Self-Defence units.

As reported, both the Yanukovych regime and Russian propaganda have tried very hard to present the Maidan movement as “fascist”, “anti-Semitic”, xenophobic and anti-Russian. They have run up against a number of major difficulties, not least the active involvement in the Maidan protests of people who would logically have most to fear if the propaganda hype were true. This includes Jewish people, Crimean Tatars, people from other ethnic minorities. Two of the people who died defending Maidan – Serhiy Nihoyan and Georgy Aratunyan – were of Armenian origin.---

None of this is presented to Russian television viewers who are constantly fed stories about how the Maidan movement and those now in government are “banderovtsi” [supporters of the controversial nationalist figure Stepan Bandera], fascists etc. This propaganda is widely spread in the Crimea as well. While there are serious grounds for believing Russia to be playing a direct role in the latest conflict, it is true that some ethnic Russian residents in the Crimea have been duped by an endless stream of horror stories about “fascists” and “extremists”.---

Returning to the anti-Semitic vandalism, Anatoly Gendin, head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of the Crimea, called it the first such case in twenty years. He believes provocateurs are trying to set ordinary citizens against others, inciting them to look for scapegoats for the problems in the country.

The attempt on Thursday night to seize the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, and now this attack, seem very clearly aimed at provoking trouble.