Gazprom Chairman Dmitry Medvedev as Candidate for Russian President meeting on Hanukkah 2007 with Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar and Alexander Boroda, the Chairman of the Board for the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia at the Moscow Synagogue and Jewish Community Center
The shrewd and very popular President of Russia, soon to become Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, on December 10, 2007 backed the candidacy of OAO Gazprom Chairman Dmitry Medvedev to be his political successor as the President of Russia. As reported by Bloomberg, this choice in part was that his election would lure a “wall of money'' into domestic stocks and boost indexes by 20 percent, according to Kingsmill Bond, Troika’s chief strategist. Putin’s party, that won 64% of the election vote on December 2 vote for parliament was preparing at that time to officially nominate Medvedev as its candidate for Russian president on December 17, 2010. What is the story behind this political news?
Gazprom is the world’s largest gas company in the world. The lenders for the state controlled and run OAO Sberbank and VTB Group that financed Gazprom came forth as two of the greatest winners in the political decision by former President Vladimir Putin to have his Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to replace him as the President of Russia .
One of the first decisions of the now nominated-to-be Russian President before his candidacy for Putin’s party was to make a visit to Moscow’s Jewish Center on December 10, 2010 for the Jewish festival of lights, Hanukkah.
As reported on the website of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS on December 11, 2007, in the article titled, “Dmitry Medvedev, President Putin’s favored Successor, makes Hanukkah visit to Moscow Jewish Center”, we read of this interesting interrelationship and affinity between the Jewish community and Russian’s President Medvedev. As written:
Federation of Jewish Communities – “Today Russia's President Vladimir Putin announced Dmitry Medvedev the current Deputy Prime minister, as his favored successor, as the next President of Russia. Dmitry Mevdvedov has been a strong supporter of the Jewish community during his current service. Last week he spent a few hours with Jewish community leaders, discussing the development of Jewish life and the fight against Anti-Semitism in Russia. The meeting was headed by Russia's Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar at the Moscow Jewish Community center.
The visit began with the top official publicly congratulating the Jewish community of Russia and Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar on the occasion of Chanukah and proceeded with a meeting about religious education, the perfecting legislation on education, and the functioning of institutions of higher education.
Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar and Alexander Boroda, the Chairman of the Board for the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, hosted Mr. Medvedev and numerous other guests – Russia's Education Minister Andrei Fursenko and leaders of Jewish higher education institutions. The First Deputy Prime Minister began by addressing the threat of extremist propaganda – neo-Nazism, anti-Semitism and chauvinism. "These phenomena exist; we must not close our eyes to them. It is the state's role to clearly and rigidly fight these manifestations," stated Mr. Medvedev.
The First Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that, as of late, a great deal has been achieved at the legislative level, noting that the State Duma's acceptance upon first reading of a law on state accreditation of non-governmental and religious educational programs as a significant step forward. "This law will make it possible, from every facet, to considerably even out the field between religious higher education institutions and state establishments and will, in the end, contribute to their development considering the opportunity for such institutions to issue appropriate a nationally-recognized diploma," he explained.”
The Jewish communities, according to this article had grown “ten-fold…over the past decade” and the unique needs of the Jewish education system needed to be addressed on a state basis. The American perception of Russia is that it is an atheistic country, a vestige of America’s “Cold War” perception of the prophetic Bear of Revelation. With the land of Russia becoming more close to the Jewish community it was FJC Chairman Alexander Boroda who was mainlining Jewish needs to streamline Jewish education uniqueness in a land in which Russian Christian Orthodoxy is gaining a new renaissance with the spiritual awakening of their former President now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The most direct recommendation of the delegation headed by Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar at the Moscow Jewish Community Center and Moscow Jewish Synagogue, was a state directive to allow the Jewish yeshiva students exemptions from mandatory army service for the “lifestyle of religious youth is incompatible with the realities associated with the fulfillment of army service. Students and graduates would be of considerably greater benefit to civil society by educating people about spiritual values".
This visit, and the association of now President Dmitry Medvedev with the Jewish people still has never been proven and on one occasion was officially denied by the Russian President that he was Jewish but was rather that he was Armenian as posted in the “The Armenian Weekly” with the article, titled, “False News of Russian President’s Armenian Ancestry Spread in Armenian Cyberspace”.
The news item, titled “Dmitry Medvedev is een Armenier” (Dmitry Medvedev is Armenian), alleges that the Russian President told a journalist from the newswire RIA Novosti (Russian Information Agency Novosti) that both his parents were Armenians from Adana. Below is a rough translation of the article making the rounds in the Armenian Cyberspace posted on De Weekkrant:
De Weekkrant – “This afternoon, during the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) press conference a Russian journalist from RIA Novosti asked Russian President Dmitry Medvedev whether he has Jewish ancestry. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev replied that the rumors about his Jewish ancestry are false. He added that his ancestors came from Adana (Western Armenia, in Turkey now) and he was born in Russia. He added, “I want everyone to know that I am Armenian. My mother’s last name was Naxshikyan. My father’s name was Bagratyan. I had to change my name to become the head of the Russian secret service (KGB) in France during the cold war… I am 100% Armenian…”
The story has little, if any, credence. Medvedev who was born in 1965, lived and studied in Russia for most of his life. He received his Law Degree in 1987 from Leningrad State University. Three years later, he received his Ph.D. from the same university… and then the Cold War was over. Published biographies of Medvedev do not make any reference to his Armenian ancestry either.
According to Russian bloggers, the assumed name of the Russian President Medvedev, is not a Jewish name but Russian meaning “bear” in the Russian language. When the suffix “ev” is added (pronounced Yaoff) it forms a genitive plural that is the same as adding an “s” to one’s last name meaning “belonging to or have the qualities of”. The root word for medved is “med” pronounced myod that carries the meaning of “honey” with is the equivalent of the English “meade” which “ved(at) in ancient Slovonic language means “to know”. As such, Medved carried the meaning of “A Bear that knows Honey.”
As Wikipedia revealed – “Dmitry Medvedev was born in Bryansk in a steelworker's family. During the Russian Civil War joined the Red Army and in 1920 he joined the All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Between 1920 and 1935 worked in Cheka, OGPU and NKVD in Soviet Ukraine.
In 1936 Dmitry Medvedev was sent as NKVD intelligence agent abroad. In 1938 returned to the Soviet Union and was appointed the head of NKVD department of Norillag a GULAG labor camp in Norilsk. Few months later Dmitry Medvedev was fired from NKVD officially for "unjustified closures of criminal investigations" against political prisoners of the GULAG. In 1939 Medvedev retired and settled in Moscow region. In the summer of 1941 few days after the German invasion of the Soviet Union he was re-instated as NKVD officer and sent to his native Bryansk region to organize underground resistance behind the enemy lines. Between September 1941 and January 1942 Dmitry Medvedev successfully organized guerrilla units in Bryansk, Smolensk, Oryol and Mogilev regions.
During the spring of 1942 Medvedev was given a new assignment - to organize partisan units deep behind the enemy lines in the Nazi-occupied Ukraine. In June his guerrilla unit named Pobediteli "The Winners" was air-dropped into Zhytomyr region of Ukraine. Between June 1942 and March 1944 Medvedev's units operated in Rivne and Lviv regions and in about 120 engagements and "liquidated" up to 2000 German soldiers and officers including 11 generals and other high-ranking officials. The wartime activities of Medvedev group in occupied Western Ukraine focused on sabotage, assassinations and espionage against the Wehrmacht.
Dmitry Medvedev personal initiative was to organize a secret hiding place for 160 rescued Jewish women, children and elderly saved from Jewish ghettos. After the Soviet army entered Western Ukraine in the spring of 1944 Medvedev underground units became part of the regular army. On November 5, 1944 Dmitry Medvedev was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union title and the Gold Star medal. After the war retired legendary partisan became author of several books including It happened by Rovno (1948) his memoirs about the war dedicated to the story of his war time partner - Soviet intelligence agent Nikolai Kuznetsov. Dmitry Medvedev died in Moscow in 1954.”
We wonder what motivated the secret “personal initiative” to save 160 Jewish women, children and elderly from the Jewish ghettos” if he was not a “secret Jew” with a personal yearning to help his own people in times of great need. Are the names coincidental or do we have a direct lineage relative or near related great uncle? The leads disappeared but remained tantalizing.
On February 22, 2008, the Israeli News, Haaretz, posted an article titled, “Rumors that Putin's successor is Jewish has Community Worried”:
Haaretz News – “The Jewish community of Russia is worried over a rumor campaign by nationalist parties claiming that Dmitri Medvedev, President Vladimir Putin's handpicked successor, is Jewish. Russian Jewish leaders declined to comment on the rumors officially, fearing to lend them credibility. Off the record, however, one said: "I pray it isn't true, because it would only make trouble, for him and for us."…
The rumors are based in part on the fact that his maternal grandfather's first name was Veniamin - similar to the Hebrew Binyamin (Benjamin) - while his family name, Shaposhnikov, is sometimes a Jewish name. But beyond that, accusing an electoral rival of being Jewish is a tactic that nationalist parties have employed in the past, both in Russia and in other former communist countries.
Nikolai Bondarik, who heads the St. Petersburg branch of the nationalist Russian Party, told the Moscow Times on Wednesday "we are categorically against him [Medvedev] because he is an ethnic Jew and does not conceal his sympathies toward Judaism." He also charged that with Medvedev in power, foreigners and Jews would plunder Russia's natural resources; "tens of thousands" of Israelis would be given key positions in bodies such as "the police, army, and secret services"; and Russia's relations with the Arab world would be destroyed. The Russian Party, which is considered anti-Semitic, is not running in the March 2 presidential election…”
The mood in Russia upon the election of President Medvedev was mixed. The Jewish media blitz of Medvedev surrounding himself with Jewish leaders at the Jewish Community Center on Hanukkah surrounded by Jewish Hanukkah candles and the Torah in the background led many of them to privately agree with one claimant, “The irony, is that we're doing everything possible to bring Jews back to Judaism, but in this particular case, with the next president, it would be better for the Jewish community if he did not identify himself as Jewish, so as not to draw fire."
Yet, it was the Israeli-Russian businessman Lev Leviev, who heads the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia who commented, “Medvedev will be wonderful for the Jews" while others privately feared that his appearance of “good will” towards the Jews will provoke a resurgence of anti-Semitism in Russia.
All this uproar should surprise no one, for history has revealed in the past, in order to save their lives or even when led into deception by one of their spiritual leaders, Jewish people went underground. The most documented time was in the 17th century when in mass, thousands of Jews left Judaism into Islam and Roman Catholicism during the disastrous apostasies of Shabbatai Tzevi and Jacob Frank. These facts have given those of the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel even more incentive to find our lost Jewish cousins.
These “lost ones” have included, according to the research of BibleSearchers, the following; the German Chancellor Adolf Hitler (scroll down), former President Bill Clinton, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Senator and former Presidential Candidate John Kerry. This also includes many American politicians, political leaders and advisors such as the members of the Council on Foreign Relations that include; former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, General Wesley Clark, Defense Secretary William Cohen, and National Security Advisor Sandy Berger.
It also gives us fascinating blogs such as “Jew or not Jew” that give their impromptu opinions on who is Jewish whether historically credible or not. What is most credible is the undying interest of Semites and Anti-Semites, many who are of Jewish bloodlines, for there are no subjects more fascinating in the world than; Israel, Jerusalem, or Are you a Jew? Maybe this is the way the G-d of Israel wanted it to be!
Credit to Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS – “Dmitry Medvedev, President Putin's Favored Successor, Makes Hanukkah Visit to Moscow Jewish Center” – December 11, 2007