Slutsker elected president of Russian Jewish Congress

Vladimir Slutsker, a member of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, was elected on Tuesday as new president of the Russian Jewish Congress (RJC), one of the leading Jewish umbrella groups in Russia, whose declared purpose is to revive Jewish life in the country. Slutsker, who represents the Russian region of Chuvashia in the Federation Council, replaces Yevgeny Satanovsky, who resigned as RJC president earlier on Tuesday. The Congress was set up in 1996 by a group of Jewish business people, activists and religious leaders. Its first president was media entrepreneur Vladimir Gusinsky, who was succeeded in 2001 by co-owner of the Yukos oil group, Leonid Nevzlin.