U.S. government against fines for Russia over Chabad manuscripts

The United States Justice Department denied in a filing in U.S. District Court in Washington that putting sanctions on Russia in this case would not serve foreign policy interests and would be against to U.S. law, The Associated Press reported. After other efforts failed in recovering more than 25,000 pages of Chabad-owned original sacred texts, Chabad sued the Russian government in 2004. The texts had been transported from Poland to Moscow by the Red Army at the end of World War II in 1945 along with the movement's library, which was seized by Bolshevik revolutionaries in 1917. Chief Judge Royce Lambert, U.S. District Court, in 2010 ordered the Russian government to turn over the records to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow or directly to Chabad. Judge Royce Lambert ruled that they were being held illegally by the Russian State Library and the Russian military archive. Russia states that Chabad should file a lawsuit in Russian courts, and that the U.S. lawsuit means nothing, since Russia is outside of their jurisdiction. If the U.S. wants to assist Chabad in this matter, they should do so within diplomatic channels and not in U.S. courts. Russia considers the texts a part of its national heritage. Consequently, Russia has halted the loan of Russian artwork for exhibit in the United States for fear that they will be seized. Justice Department has over-ruled Chief Judge Royce Lambert saying the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act prevents the U.S. from leveling the fines, according to the AP. Interestingly enough, the Soviet Union ruled in 1991 that the texts should be turned over to Chabad, but Russia ignored the judgment after the collapse of the Soviet empire. Rony Havive Chabad