JEWISH OPINION LEADER CHALLENGES YELTSIN TO OUST BARSUKOV.

JEWISH OPINION LEADER CHALLENGES YELTSIN TO OUST BARSUKOV.

In an open letter to Boris Yeltsin January 23, Yevreiskaya gazeta’s editorial board chairman Tankred Golenpolsky asked the president to dismiss federal security service chief General Mikhail Barsukov for his "racist insults" to the Chechen people. At a televised news conference, Barsukov had pretended to cite an anonymous "respected Chechen" in stating "the Chechen can only be a murderer, or a robber, or at least a thief. There is no other Chechen." Challenging the president to ask his subordinates to "respect the peoples of the country that you lead," Golenpolsky said that the memory of the Jewish holocaust impels him to protest against Barsukov’s statement, for which "in any civilized country he would have been dismissed." (11)

New Estonian Commander Confirmed in Post.