Russian President Vladimir V. Putin said on Tuesday that he blamed “unjust rulings by the judicial authorities of another country†for the tensions over a collection of books and manuscripts that is being sought by the Brooklyn-based Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic group, but offered to defuse the situation by transferring the works to a new Jewish center in Moscow.
Mr. Putin did not specifically refer to American courts, but he was clearly referring to rulings made in the United States, including one last month that ordered Russia to pay $50,000 a day for failing to hand over the Schneerson Collection, more than 12,000 books and 50,000 religious papers, as ordered earlier.
Mr. Putin, who stressed that the collection “belongs to the Russian state,†made his comments at a meeting of government officials held on Tuesday at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, whih was opened by a Moscow-based Chabad group last November.
The Moscow group is known for backing Mr. Putin, who said he is ready to transfer Schneerson Collection books held at the Russian State Library to the Jewish center and said that all sides in the conflict should gather to resolve the legal issues “and strive not to inflame the situation but search for a solution.†He also said that restitution of cultural property seized after the 1917 revolution is impossible because it would open a “Pandora’s box†of claims that Russia is not ready to address.
