He is awaiting parliamentary approval. The State Duma, as the house is known, faced a deadline today for approving or rejecting the president's choice. In a television interview following his appointment as acting premier, Kiriyenko was asked about his ethnic background and replied that his father is Jewish and his mother is Russian. The Duma's move surprised many observers. Kiriyenko has never expressed any public interest in Judaism and has reportedly never visited the Jewish state.
Russian law prohibits a person who has a passport from a foreign country to hold public office.
Lithuania's president has rejected an appeal by a neo-Nazi group to be officially recognized as a political group. Founded two years ago in the northern Lithuanian city of Siauliai, the group claims to have 800 members. The group's flag bears a white swastika on a red background. The National Socialists had appealed to the president to override an earlier Justice Ministry decision not to grant registration to the organization. Recently, some 46 percent of callers to a Russian television station said they believed that Jews commit ritual murders.