If a Jew were being tried in Russia and I were on the jury, I would probably vote to acquit because Jews have learned never to trust the Russian government or police. And I'll tell you something else--even if I believed a Jew guilty, I might acquit him anyway because he's a fellow Jew. A fellow Jew in a place where everything's always been against him, where many innocent fellow Jews have been framed.

But please let me explain my reasons. I would never do such a thing in this country--only in Russia, which of course doesn't have a jury system anyway. In this country you might be able to prove it if there's a police conspiracy; in Russia, you can't. And also, for years and years every Jew in the Soviet Union has had problems with the government and the police. They are very hostile to Jews and you can feel it when you enter a police station or when you look for a job. You've got to learn to live with it because there's no place you can complain about it. And it feels like living your whole life with only one arm.

All citizens in Russia must carry a passport listing their ethnicity, and although I've escaped some problems because I'm registered as a Russian like my father, I still look Jewish like my mother. And there is a Jewish saying in Russia: "People won't beat your passport picture, they're going to beat your face."

Generally Jews are law-abiding and not stopped all the time by police, but if cops come up to you and you look Jewish, it definitely plays a part in how they treat you. In 1989 I was at a demonstration in Moscow where several hundred neo-Nazis were marching and shouting things like: "Jews get out of Russia! Beat the [expletive]! Save Russia!" I began to argue with a demonstrator and a cop came up and was going to arrest me. I said: "Why don't you arrest these morons with these slogans?" but he led me away instead. The police tell you that Jews are not loyal to Russia. People in Russia are generally pretty hostile to the police, but they don't like Jews either. So although they know we often get beaten and framed, they say: "Well, they're Jews, so we don't care."