Valeria Ilyinichna Novodvorskaya is one of the leaders of the party Democratic Union of Russia. She was born 17 May 1950 in Baranovichi. Her great-grandfather was a professional revolutionary. Her grandfather was born in Tobolsk stockaded town, where his parents were doing their time. In 1969 she was arrested for the first time. After her release she studied evenings at the Department of Foreign Languages of the Moscow Regional Teacher's College. She has a good command of French, German, English, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek. Since 1972 she issued and distributed samizdat. In 1988 she was one among those who formed the party Democratic Union. She was arrested on a charge of slogans to a coup d'etat in May 1991 and released in August 1991. In 1993 she was in the pre-election bloc of the Party of Economic Liberty. Hobbies: tourism, swimming, theatre, books.

- There is a crisis of interethnic relations in Moscow and in the whole Russia. Not a day can pass without reports of anti-Semitic placards, clashes with the Caucasians, assaults on the Asians, etc. What is it? Is it a brain fever or just spots on the sun? Or has an awful irreversible process of crowd's brutalizing begun?

- It is a natural development of events whipped up by the Kremlin blessing. Russia has been a colonial monster since time immemorial. It had become the evil empire by the time of its breakdown in 1917. It could have been told by Poland, Georgia, peoples of the North Caucasus, Central Asia and Jews who were confined in the Pale of Settlement... The Soviet Union did not just inherit the worst traits of the empire but multiplied them. It became somewhat in-between Loch Ness monster, firedrake and Koshchey (an evil being in Russian folklore). One should not be surprised at the wave of excesses on interethnic grounds...

- But this wave seemed to be abating in the late 1990's.

- This wave never tended to abate. The crash of the Soviet monster, the death of the red dinosaur caused terrible stink and decay. The carcass, whose several paws were chopped off in 1991, felt deeply outraged. And there began conflicts, wars. We, democrats, Westernizers, and right-wing liberals, talked and warned of this danger.

We warned that if the authorities speculated upon xenophobia it would soon come to pogroms. Sooner or later humble backward people will notice their neibghbours are not just the Southerners peacefully selling fruit, but also Jews who everywhere and always form the intellectual elite. It is this elite that is going to pay for everything.

- On the one hand, there have been built Jewish culture centers, a synagogue in Poklonnaya Hill, the Kremlin houses concerts of Jewish ensembles... On the other hand, there are anti-Semitic placards with hidden explosives, desecration of the graves and attacks on synagogues... How can it all go together?

- It is very easy. Black Hundred followers feel when the authorities are serious and when they are hypocritical. In medieval towns Jews were beaten because they were more educated, had better health care system, social security, sewerage...

- Berl Lazar, one of the 2 Chief Rabbis in Russia, said that Jews have never lived so freely and happily in Russia as they do now, that there is no anti-Semitism in the state and the authorities together with the President are doing everything to eradicate its remnants.

- Lazar's words remind me of the speeches of several dissidents, who had been brainwashed by the KGB before meeting with foreign journalists. They spoke about the freedom of speech in the Soviet Union, good life of the intelligentsia, etc. I hope Adolf Shaevich, the other Chief Rabbi of Russia, will not come down to such apologetics.

Swastika graffiti in Moscow, organizations that openly call to eradication of Jews in Russian can be left unnoticed only by the blind or by someone who wants to act as the chief of Jewish self-government in the Warsaw ghetto.

KGB is ruling in the Kremlin. It is the same organization that fabricated the "case of doctors" and decided to hang Jews on the Red Square... This authority has no affection for Jews. It is anti-Semitic. It is not to be begged or re-educated.

- Valeria Ilyinichna, dozens of Jewish organizations are active in Russia, hundreds of Jewish publications are being printed, new synagogues are being opened and the old ones are being renovated, there is a system of Jewish education, there are no restrictions as to the enrollment to universities or finding a job. And it is only the blind, who fail no notice it.

- Previously the authorities did not let the Jews study at elite universities, work at secret plants and immigrate to Israel. It is setting the crowd against them now. Skinheads, barkashovtsy and the like multiplied with the approval of the authorities. Militia does not want to bother with them. There even have been cases when pogrom-makers were acquitted in the provinces, e.g. in Orol.

- To my mind, the position of Russia in the Middle East conflict is unclear. It just sustains a pause, as they say in theatre.

- On the one hand, Russia takes part in the grand crusade against terrorism and finds it inappropriate to support Yasser Arafat openly. On the other hand, there is a concurrence of feelings and dreams between them. They have always been close friends. Leaders of terrorism and extremism, who studied at the Patris Lumumba Institute, were taught that "Israeli militarists are known in the whole world, and I demand they answer for everything" (these lines are from a song by the late Halych).

"Ren-TV" channel has recently asked the Palestinian ambassador and me to comment upon the building of the "great wall" in Israel. Obviously, they thought I would support the ambassador's storm of indignation and call that building undemocratic. But I said that the whole world is to be blamed for what is going on in the Middle East, as Israel has been thrown to the mercy of Arabs. The Israelis have been driven to such despair that they decided to shut themselves off from the Palestinians by a wall. However, my words were cut out and the programme turned out to be one-sided.

- Many people in Israel think they can rely on Russia's help in the conflict with Palestine. What do you think about it?

- Only an idealist to the marrow of his bones can count on Russia's help, e.g. J.W.Bush Jr. who takes Putin's hypocritical sighs for their face value. Russia is simply unable to help anybody. It has neither army, nor money, moral or politics. So, it cannot help in any of these spheres. What is the benefit from such an ally?

- And where are right-wing democrats whom you also belong to?

- They have taken to the nearest woods. What do you want from democrats when even Berl Lazar pours out his compliments to the authorities? And he has a reserve passport and a reserve country. Democrats have none of this.

Right-wing politicians have divided their work like this, "Ham sows wheat, Sim offers prayers, Yaphet enjoys power". Some will silently criticize Putin, Chubajs and Kirienko will work for him and the others will please him.

We have voluntarily become renegades.

- Imagine that you became the President of Russia for 24 hours...

- It is impossible to do anything in this position in 24 hours. But it would be necessary to do the following the very first day: to withdraw troops from Chechnya and give it independence, remove stars from the Kremlin, shut down the mausoleum, ban the Communist party, apologize to countries which Russia has caused detriment to. And then it would be inevitable to spend decades eradicating the remnants of colonialism and becoming a good civilized country.

This is what I would do in the first day. The main thing is to build capitalism and re-educate people, which would take decades to accomplish. Enlighteners should come to power for this purpose. First of all, they would ban limonovtsy, barkashovtsy, skinheads and other scum that invades our streets.