Putin categorically rejects return of Jewish manuscripts

By Reuters

A collection of Jewish writings will remain in Russia because returning it to the New York-based Chabad Lubavitch movement would set a precedent paving the way for more such claims dating back to Soviet times, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. "The Schneerson Collection belongs to Russia," Putin said in a new Jewish museum in Moscow, in referring to texts held in Russian libraries and archives, some of them confiscated by the Soviet Union from Nazi forces during World War Two.

In January, a Washington judge ordered Russia to pay US$ 50,000 per day in fines for its failure to adhere to a 2010 ruling to return the collection. The ruling triggered an angry reaction from Moscow, which called the decision "absolutely unlawful and provocative".

"If we now open a Pandora's box and start satisfying similar requests, there will be no end to these claims. Maybe one day we will be able to do this, but now we are absolutely not ready for this. This is impossible," Putin said.

The collection of Jewish texts has been the subject of a legal and diplomatic tug-of-war since before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Putin said the texts could be put on display at the Jewish museum "as a gesture towards those people who really want to solve this problem and not use it as reason for emotions and confrontation".

Late last year Hungarian Jews asked Russia to return scrolls and valuable religious items looted by Nazis and later by the Red Army in World War II. At that time, Moscow did not comment on the claim which had the support of the Hungarian government.

Photo: Lubavitch.com