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Duma Targets Games, Web Sites(The Moscow Times Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)A senior United Russia deputy said Friday that the State Duma was drafting legislation to prohibit the dissemination of extremist information via the Internet and computer games in response to the stabbing of eight people at a Moscow synagogue. Also on Friday, prosecutors charged Alexander Koptsev, 20, with carrying out Wednesday's attack, and the U.S. ambassador visited the synagogue to offer his sympathy. An American was among the injured. Pavel Krasheninnikov, the chairman of the Duma's Legislative Committee, said his committee was drafting a package of bills in an effort to prevent similar xenophobic attacks from occurring. "We consider it right to establish the dissemination of extremist information, including via the Internet, computer games and other similar media, as a contributing factor to crime," Krasheninnikov said during a Duma hearing. Koptsev said in comments released Friday that extremist web sites had played a role in the attack. He also played "Postal" -- a popular computer game in which a postman goes berserk and kills everyone he sees -- just hours before the Wednesday evening rampage, news media have reported. Krasheninnikov, who said Koptsev's case was not unique, offered few details about the legislation, other than to say it would be submitted to the Duma for consideration soon. Jewish leaders have demanded that authorities push for better enforcement of existing laws. A clampdown on computer games would be a first in Russia, where there are currently no restrictions on the kinds of games that can be sold or who can buy them. Violent computer games, including "Postal," have prompted copycat violence in many other countries. Lawmakers in the United States and Australia have also called for a ban on "Postal." The game's developer, U.S.-based Running With Scissors, has denied that "Postal" might lead to real violence. "We believe that violence belongs in entertainment products -- not in the streets," it said in an undated statement on its web site. Under Russian law, it is illegal to incite ethnic or religious hate, but fascist and other extremist-nationalist literature is widely available. Koptsev is accused of bursting into the Chabad Synagogue, near Pushkin Square, and stabbing eight men with a hunting knife on Wednesday. Worshipers wrestled the attacker to the floor and held him until police arrived. Koptsev told investigators the next day that he disliked Jews and "had committed the crime out of envy of them because they live better," according to excerpts of Koptsev's testimony released on Friday by the city prosecutor's office. Koptsev also said he had acted "under the influence of books and Internet sites" and that during the attack he "could not do anything with himself and could not control himself." He expressed remorse for inflicting the injuries and said he hoped that nobody would die, the statement said. Five people remained hospitalized Sunday, including a 75-year-old man in intensive care with stab wounds to his torso and arm, said Boruch Gorin, a spokesman for the Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia. The only foreigner in the hospital was Yechchez Kely, 19, of Israel, he said. An American and a Tajik citizen had been released earlier. Rossia / APStabbing suspect Alexander Koptsev standing in the defendant's cage Friday.When prosecutors appealed to a court to sanction his arrest Friday, Koptsev said: "I don't care. I agree," Interfax reported. Koptsev was shown in the defendant's cage with very short hair and with cuts and bruises on his face. He was charged with racially motivated attempted murder, assault and actions aimed at humiliating national or religious groups. The attempted murder and assault charges each carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, while the maximum sentence for the third charge is five years. The court rejected an appeal by his lawyer to release him from custody if he signed an agreement not to leave Moscow. Moskovsky Komsomolets reported that Koptsev had regularly attended meetings of one of the biggest skinhead groups in Moscow, Blood and Honor. Prosecutors had earlier said Koptsev did not belong to any radical organizations. "Koptsev has been with the skinheads since he was 17," an unidentified skinhead told the newspaper. "Guys called him Platzkart [the low-priced sleeper car on trains] because Sasha always used that kind of car when he traveled to football games with his friends." Izvestia reported that Koptsev had kept a diary and that it was filled with swastikas and notes from extremist literature and web sites. Koptsev's neighbors told the newspaper that he had shown a dislike for Jews and dark-skinned people from the Caucasus. Doctors have examined Koptsev and preliminarily determined that he is not mentally ill, Interfax reported. U.S. Ambassador to Russia William Burns visited the synagogue Friday and conveyed his sympathies and the condolences of the American people to its chief rabbi, Yitzak Kogan, and those wounded in the attack. "We urge the Russian authorities to use all legal means to prosecute the perpetrator of this crime, and stop any such attacks in the future," he said in a statement. In the Duma, United Russia Deputy Andrei Isayev demanded on Friday that the Communist Party and Rodina answer for deputies who signed a letter calling for the closing of all Jewish organizations in Russia last January. "Nothing is more disgusting than seeing political leaders who, to increase their popularity, first release such statements and then take back their words," said Isayev, chairman of the Duma's Labor Committee, Interfax reported. Isayev was referring to a letter signed by about 20 deputies from the Communist, Rodina and Liberal Democratic parties. The letter argued that Jews were to blame for anti-Semitism and asked Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov to open proceedings "on the prohibition in our country of all religious and ethnic Jewish organizations as extremist." Isayev demanded that Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov and Rodina leader Dmitry Rogozin brief the Duma on what measures they had taken against the signatories from their parties. He said the deputies who signed the letter should be expelled or otherwise disciplined. Communist Deputy Sergei Reshulsky insisted that his party had always condemned anti-Semitism. "We condemn not only the attack at the synagogue but all recent attacks," Reshulsky said by telephone, in a reference to a series of apparently racially motivated attacks on dark-skinned people in several cities. "Authorities should investigate the reason for the increasing violence in our country and take measures to prevent it," he said. Communist Deputy Viktor Kuznetsov called Isayev's statements offensive and suggested that he should be disciplined by being barred from speaking during Duma sessions for at least one month. Rogozin condemned the attack but suggested teaching Russian Orthodoxy in schools and banning violence on television as ways to prevent further incidents, Interfax reported. A former Rodina member, Duma Deputy Speaker Sergei Baburin, told Interfax that the knife attack was not connected to anti-Semitism. Also on Friday, the Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia and the Moscow police announced in a joint statement that they would establish a working group to detect and interdict anti-Semitic propaganda and xenophobia, RIA-Novosti reported. Liberal Democratic Party Deputy Nikolai Kuryanovich told fellow Duma deputies that a commission should be set up to investigate "the illegal actions of migrants toward the [ethnic] Russian population in Moscow." One million Jews live in Russia, according to the Federation of Jewish Communities, and the Jewish community is now enjoying a revival after a wave of emigration to Israel and other countries. |