Wall Street Journal Profiles Alliance of Russian Rabbi and Putin

Today's Wall Street Journal carries a front page article [subscription required] on Russia's powerful Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Berel Lazar and his close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The article says that Lazar's organization, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, was promoted by Putin in 2000 as part of his battle against oligarch and media mogul Vladimir Gusinsky who had led a competing organization, the Jewish Congress. Critics say that in exchange for Putin's support-- including support in gaining control of millions of dollars of Jewish communal property from the state-- Lazar has played down anti-Semitism in Russia and lobbied for Mr. Putin abroad. [Thanks to Steven H. Sholk for the lead.]