MOSCOW, August 6 (RIA Novosti) – When A Just Russia mayoral candidate Nikolai Levichev tried to woo apathetic Moscow voters with word puzzles and lifestyle advice, it seemed a reasonable move – but only until racial slurs were found in a crossword.
An arroword puzzle printed in Levichev’s campaign newspaper asked readers to come up with another word for “Jew,” the answer, corroborated by answers around it, being “yid,” reports said Tuesday.
Several blogs and news sites published photos of the solved puzzle featuring the word “yid,” which is even more offensive in Russian than in English. Expanding on the Jewish theme, the question next to it read, “Jewish bread,” the answer being “matzo.”
Following reports about the Y-word, Twitter bloggers posted photos of an arroword that allegedly came from another installment of Levichev’s paper – with one of the questions being “African” and the answer, also corroborated by answers around it, being “niger” (misspelled with one “g” in Russian).
A spokesman for Levichev declined to comment on Tuesday afternoon.
Though the leftist A Just Russia party, which has long battled allegations of being a Kremlin project, has never campaigned on nationalist or anti-Semitic platforms, it already used the “yid” arroword in 2011, according to a report from that year by a LiveJournal blogger.
Levichev’s rating for the September 8 mayoral election was within the margin of error, according to separate surveys by the country’s three leading pollsters, all published before the recent “yid” incident. His campaign newspapers have been noted for their focus on non-political materials, including weight-loss tips and cooking recipes.
Of the six candidates registered for the Moscow race, acting Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, a longtime associate of President Vladimir Putin, is the runaway favorite in opinion polls, trailed by opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is battling fraud charges – which he called fabricated – parallel to his campaign.
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