[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 98 (Friday, June 28, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7264-S7265]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE ELECTION IN RUSSIA

  Mr. BENNETT. Mr. President, I thank the managers of the bill.
  Normally, I would not intrude upon the legislative session for a 
matter that belongs in morning business. But this morning's newspaper 
carries a story that has some urgency connected with it, and I think 
some connection with the bill we are discussing.
  We are talking about America's defenses, and in the course of the 
debate, we talked about the situation in Russia and the election in 
Russia.
  In this morning's Washington Post there is a headline ``New Yeltsin 
Aide Rails at Foreign Religions.''
  Then the subheadline, which is what has caused me to come to the 
floor in protest, says ``Lebed Calls Mormonism `Mold and Scum.' ''
  In the story coming from Moscow, the date line of June 27,

       Alexander Lebed, the tough-talking retired general who has 
     become President Boris Yeltsin's unofficial running mate, 
     railed against Western cultural influences in Russia today 
     and vowed to rid the country of foreign religious and cults--
     including Mormonism, which he called ``mold and scum.''
       Speaking to an assembly of patriotic organizations, he 
     declared that Russia has three ``established, traditional 
     religions''--Orthodox Christianity, Islam and Buddhism--
     pointedly excluding the faith of the country's 650,000 Jews, 
     who have endured fierce antisemitism here for centuries.
       He then lumped Mormons with Aum Supreme Truth--the Japanese 
     cult implicated in last year's poison gas attack on the Tokyo 
     subway system--saying they pose a ``direct threat to Russia's 
     security'' because they are bent on ``perverting, corrupting 
     and ultimately breaking up out state.''

  Mr. President, there are several reactions to this outburst on the 
part of Mr. Lebed, all of them disturbing.
  First, we should note that he is reciting and repeating the general 
political posture taken by the Communist candidate in the race for the 
Presidency. This man, who is now viewed as the strongest man behind 
President Yeltsin and possibly President Yeltsin's replacement in that 
part of the Russian politics, has reached out to take the most virulent 
antireligious positions of their Communist opponent, Mr. Zyuganov, and 
has adopted them into his political platform.
  One would assume, therefore, that we might dismiss this phrase as 
simply a political ploy on Mr. Lebed's part in an effort to steal a 
political position from the opponents. It is far more serious than 
that. Mr. Lebed has the reputation of being the kind of man who does in 
fact speak at the drop of a hat and sometimes without thinking but who, 
once having made a statement of this kind, would use his official 
position to follow it up with a serious religious repression of any who 
do not fall into the three religions he has declared to be acceptable--
Orthodox Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. I would think that 
Catholics, Protestants, Western Christians of any kind, and certainly 
Jews, would be chilled by this kind of statement coming from the man 
who is so close to President Yeltsin.

  It is very interesting to me as a side comment that he has chosen to 
speak of the Buddhists as one of the three acceptable religions in 
Russia when, in fact, there is not a significant presence of Buddhism 
in Russia. If you are going to choose religions on the basis of their 
representation there, there are far more Jews in Russia than there are 
Buddhists, and yet he has chosen to include the Buddhists and very 
pointedly exclude the Jews. This is an outrageous statement from a 
nation that has been the source of some of the most virulent anti-
Semitism the world has ever seen, and it clearly needs to be 
challenged.
  The other point that needs to be made here with respect to what is 
being said in this Presidential campaign in Russia has to do not with 
religion but with democracy. We are being told continually that the 
Russians have finally crossed over the hump, and they have gone from 
the totalitarianism of the Communist years now into the open sunshine 
of free debate and free dissension. We know from history that the first 
casualty of tolerance for a regime moving in the direction of 
totalitarianism is always religious tolerance, and then immediately 
following after that comes an attempt to destroy any political 
dissension.
  We are seeing a signal here from the man closest to President Yeltsin 
that the Yeltsin regime, if they listen to this man, will move in the 
direction of destroying dissent and differing opinions throughout all 
of Russian society. They will start with religion, but surely they will 
then move to repress all other dissenting opinions and we will see 
Russia move back into the shadows of totalitarianism under which the 
Russian people have, unfortunately, lived for centuries, if not 
millennia. Indeed, if you go past the Communist period into the years 
of the czarist rule, we found that the czars and the then State church 
worked hand in hand to see that there was no dissension of any kind in 
either religious or political debate in czarist Russia. These are the 
specters that are being raised by this kind of statement from this man 
in a Presidential election.
  Mr. President, I am working on the language of a letter that will be 
sent to Secretary Christopher, a letter that will be sent to Brian 
Atwood, the Director of AID, and that probably will be sent also to 
Boris Yeltsin himself. Senator Hatch is working with me. We will 
coordinate the language of this letter. Senator Reid has joined and 
indicated his outrage at these statements, as have Senators Lieberman 
and Specter.

[[Page S7265]]

  The Presiding Officer will recognize that three of us in this group 
are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the 
Mormons to which Mr. Lebed pointedly refers, and the other two are 
Jews: Mr. Lieberman, who practices an orthodox fashion of his religion 
as faithfully as anyone ever has, and Mr. Specter, whose father was 
born in Russia and forced out of Russia because of the anti-Semitism in 
that country. And Senator Specter continues to practice his Jewish 
religion.
  Senator Specter and I have been to Russia together, and we have 
visited with high officials in the Russian Government and Russian 
regime. At the time, we were both welcomed, and we both felt we were 
contributing to a greater degree of understanding of the two nations.

  Now, with this kind of statement, I would realize that if I went back 
to Russia, I would be labeled ``mold and scum'' because of my religious 
position, and Senator Specter would have every reason to raise the 
question of what would happen to him in a modern Russia if this kind of 
thing is allowed to go unchallenged.
  One final comment. For many, many years, the Mormons were excluded 
from Russia and had no contact there. It was during the time when 
Mikhail Gorbachev was the head of the Soviet Union that the Government 
reached out and recognized Mormonism as a religion and invited Mormons 
to come to Russia. From that time until this, the Mormons have been in 
Russia and have had a very welcomed response on the part of the Russian 
people. There are now over 5,000 native Russians who have joined with 
the Mormon Church in Russia who have reason to feel very, very much 
threatened by this kind of formal statement.
  So, Mr. President, as I said, Senators Hatch, Lieberman, Reid, and 
Specter will be joining with me in putting forth an official protest in 
this matter, but I wanted to bring it to the attention of the Senate in 
this Chamber this afternoon.
  Mr. NUNN addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Smith). The time of the Senator has 
expired. The Senator from Georgia is recognized.
  Mr. NUNN. I am pleased by the statement of the Senator from Utah 
today because I found the comments that I read in the paper attributed 
to Mr. Lebed both disturbing and very dangerous. I'm hoping that 
President Yeltsin and others will denounce this kind of rhetoric, 
which, no matter what its purpose, if it was simply posturing for 
political purposes leading up to the election, is inexcusable language. 
It can set up very dangerous kinds of activities in Russia against 
Mormons, against Jews, and against others.
  I think it is very timely for the Senator to make this announcement. 
I identify with his statement, and I hope there will be corrective 
action taken by the Russian officials in terms of making it clear that 
this kind of rhetoric is unacceptable.
  Mr. BENNETT. Mr. President, I thank the Senator.
  Mr. CONRAD addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. CONRAD. I thank the Senator from Utah [Mr. Bennett] as well for 
his statement. I read the statement that was attributed to General 
Lebed this morning in the paper, and I must say I was surprised by it. 
It is an obnoxious statement. It should not be allowed to stand without 
a reaction from those of us in this country who feel strongly about 
that kind of statement from wherever it emanates. I salute the Senator 
from Utah for his strong statement on the floor today.
  Mr. President, when I was in high school, I played on a Mormon 
softball team. I do not know how they let somebody raised in the 
Presbyterian Church, later a Unitarian, play on the Mormon team, but I 
had a great association with Mormons. We do not have many in North 
Dakota, but we had a close association built up through that activity. 
We had a pretty good softball team as well. They were some of the 
finest people with whom I have ever been associated.
  I think the statement by General Lebed is one that requires 
condemnation, and I am pleased to join my voice to those that have 
already been raised in objection to the really outrageous language that 
was used at least in the statement attributed to General Lebed. If 
those are not his words, he ought to quickly correct the record. If 
those are his words, he ought to apologize.
  I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
  Mr. BENNETT. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Georgia and the 
Senator from North Dakota for their expressions of support. I am very 
grateful for that, as I am sure are all other individuals who have been 
outraged by the statements attributed to General Lebed.
  I might say to the Senator from North Dakota, I am sure he hit the 
ball pretty well, which is why they had him on the team, in addition to 
his good personality and friendship. These teams are open to everybody, 
but they are open more to people who can play well and not people like 
myself who get in the way.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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