The thin mask of tolerance slipped from Vladimir Zhirinovsky on Friday, when the extreme Russian nationalist issued a rabidly anti-Semitic statement designed as a rallying call for the 25 million Russians living in the so-called "near abroad."


A statement from the ultranationalist's misleadingly named Liberal Democratic Party and signed by Zhirinovsky himself said that Jews were behind the mass flight of ethnic Russians back to Russia from ex-Soviet republics.


"The orchestras playing the same song, 'Russians get out!' are being directed by the same conductors, the same provocateurs," the statement said. "The same provocateurs in Russia itself have persistently moved into the most prestigious and well paid professions -- scholars with grants, writers, composers, film directors, lawyers, journalists and so on -- the Jews."


Zhirinovsky said that under the Soviet regime Jews were "a thousand times" better represented in top jobs than they "ought" to be.


"And now in democratic Russia (Russia, I stress, not Israel), in ministries, banks, companies and so on, it is only Jews who dominate, or their relatives."


Zhirinovsky has frequently denied he is prejudiced against Jews, although he is fond of accusing his enemies of being in the pay of the Mossad, the Israeli secret service. But this openly anti-Semitic statement marks a change of style.


Zhirinovsky called for "anti-Russian propaganda" to be banned. He said his party was ready to "defend Russians and other peoples of the former U.S.S.R., both in Russia and in other countries."


An investigation by The Associated Press earlier this year found that Zhirinovksy himself was Jewish, the son of a man named Volf Eidelshtein. The reporters said he had taken the name Zhirinovsky from his mother and had himself registered as Russian when he moved to Moscow to go to university. Zhirinovsky called the report lies, and the documents AP produced, forgeries.