Vladimir Putin with Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar
Vladimir Putin with Russian Chief Rabbi Berel LazarReuters

Mikhail Skoblionok, the head of the Jewish National and Cultural Autonomy of Tatarstan, expressed doubts Tuesday that many Jews will accept the Russian president's invitation to leave Europe and find refuge in Russia.

Writing in the Tatar website Realnoe Vremya, Skoblionok noted that many French Jews have been buying up apartments in Israel for the last five years. "People say that French Jews bought up these apartments and keep them in store. They are afraid that France will become a merely Muslim state and prepared reserve flats."

"Recently Putin proposed the Jews of Europe to take refuge from pogroms in Russia," he continued. "Vladimir Putin always knows what to do and say. But a Jew of sound judgement won't go to Russia.

"I will explain why. Our country is at the height of the economic crisis. There is a huge lead between the rich and the poor that do not exist in many other countries. The rich buy villas, hotels, yachts abroad, while the poor simply have nothing to eat. A revolution may arise here.

"The Jews in the whole world estimate this situation. This is why I don't think that there will be a crazy flow of Jews from the whole world to Russia."

And yet, Skoblionok opined, at least in Russia, the attitude of both ordinary citizens and the government toward Jews is good. There are many Jews in the government there. "[Prime Minister Dmitry] Medvedev has Jewish roots. [Deputy Prime Minister Arkady] Dvorkovich is Jewish."

"In Tatarstan, the situation is different. The regional government has no Jew," he lamented. "What Jew will come here?"

Putin made the offer last  month in a meeting with members of the European Jewish Congress (EJC) that took place in the Kremlin. Moshe Vyacheslav Kantor, EJC president, complained to Putin about the rising anti-Semitism across Europe and the growing number of attacks against Jews.

Putin reportedly replied: "Let [the Jews] come to us then," adding that "during the Soviet period they were leaving the country, and now they should return."