Heightened Worry In Russia We Sell Quality Brand Name Closeouts at "AMAZING" Prices! New Closeouts Arriving Daily. One Time Deals! `GOOSE' from page 10 YOUR B LOW WHOLESALE DEPARTMENT STORE. r r with 15.00 purchase Valid through July 31, 2000 Coupons cannot be combined with any other offer Hunter's Square Shopping Center (248) 932-5110 "A SOUTHFIELD FARMINGTON HILLS 14 Mile Rd. AMAZING "F SAVINGS Hunters Square Shopping Center Sherwood Square Shopping Center 11 Mile Rd. 'PM 3>l el PoeLI D JO L Coupons cannot be combined with any other offer j Valid through July 31, 2000 J' AMAZING "r SAVINGS Sherwood Square Shopping Center Lincoln 1-696 A (248) 569-6699 vegetarian treat in West Bloomfield." Bob Talbert, March '99 just had to find out what so man y people were raving about. Danny Raskin, June '99 " I " I 0 0 ENTIRE /0 BILL I Lunch & Dinner 40 eng Expires 12/31/2000 I I. 1 VE ETARIAN (248) 926-6711 6175 HAGGERTY • WEST BLOOMFIELD TIE ONE ON ONLY AT THE SHIRT BOX The Shirt Box, Shirts and a Whole Lot More. Always 20%-35% Off Retail HOURS: Mon.-Sat. 9:30-6 • Thurs. till 7 7/14 2000 12 Courtyard Center • 32500 Northwestern Hwy. • Farmington Hills, MI 48334 • (248) 851-6770 ship" with top officials in President Yeltsin's administration. And in 1996, Goussinsky and six other financiers banded together to fund Yeltsin's victorious re-election campaign when it appeared possible that Communist leader Gennadi Zyuganov might defeat him. But if Goussinsky enjoyed a special relationship with Yeltsin, it was also very tumultuous. The first attack on Goussinsky came in December 1994, when presi- dential security service agents raided his offices and harassed his security guards and other personnel. The then head of the presidential security service later said that Goussinsky's nemesis, fellow oligarch Boris Berezovsky, had asked him to arrange Goussinsky's murder. A Life Change Fearing a possible arrest on charges similar to those that recently landed him in jail, Goussinsky left the coun- try and spent seven months abroad. Sources say that those months in London changed his life. "During his stay abroad, Vladimir had a lot of free time to think about his Jewishness and there he decided to become active in the Jewish communi- ty," says Yeygen,y-Satanovsky, a leader of the Russian Jewish Congress, the Jewish umbrella group founded in 1995. When Goussinsky returned to Moscow, he decided to become involved in the Jewish community. He was helped by Israel Singer, one of the leaders of the World Jewish Congress, and Pinchas Goldschmidt, the chief rabbi of Moscow, who helped guide Goussinsky through the Jewish world. Satanovsky, himself a successful businessman, strongly denies the widespread accusation that Goussinsky began bankrolling the Jewish community to "buy" interna- tional Jewish support to fight off future embezzlement charges. "Goose," he says, using Goussinsky's nickname, "could have bought his security much cheaper" than the millions of dollars a year that he donates to the RJC. "He is crazy over Jewish things, Israeli patriotism and all that. He really wants to help Jews here to become proud and self- respecting." U.S. Support American Jewish groups are also behind Goussinsky. "If he's using his Jewish identity as a shield, why not?" asks Mark Levin, executive director of NCSJ: Advocates on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia. "This is someone who has not hidden his Jewish identity. This is someone who has made an impor- tant contribution to Russian Jewish identity." In addition, adds Levin, the gov- ernment used Goussinsky's Jewishness against him in an advertisement that mentioned his connection to Israel. He has an Israeli passport and owns 25 percent of the Israeli newspaper Mdariv. Fifty-two members of the U.S. Congress have also rallied behind him, sending a letter to President Bill . Clinton to press Russia to "formally justify" Goussinsky's arrest. Others, like Leonid Katsis, a Jewish political analyst, point to Goussinsky's links to the Soviet-era KGB. More than 50 former KGB employees work for his security ser- vice, and the head of a KGB depart- ment notorious for its surveillance of Zionists and dissidents, Gen. Philip Bobkov, is said to be Goussinsky's chief security consultant. Goussinskv has a simple reaction to this criticism: "We'd be ready to hire the devil himself if he could give us security." Even Goussinsky's critics agree that he -has made valuable contributions to the revival of Russian Jewish life by turning Jewish philanthropy into a respectable activity and demonstrating that the Jewish community in Russia can be self-supporting and financially independent. Goussinsky is also participating in international Jewish philanthropy He is one of 14 philanthropists who _have pledged a total of $70 million to sup- port Birthright Israel, the program started by Jewish Renaissance Media Chairman Michael Steinhardt that builds Jewish identity by sending young Jewish adults on free 10-day trips to Israel. Despite his problems, Goussinsky appears ready to go down fighting if need be. He showed that moxie last month when, in the midst of the cam- paign against him, he announced that he would spend $40 million to pur- chase 45 percent of Bezeq, Israel's tele- phone company. An American who knows him per- sonally is Inna Itkina. A close acquain- tance of Goussinsky in the 1970s now living in San Francisco, she recalls that he "was very active, and he always came up with new ideas. He is a very adventurous person." Ei