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MOSCOW (JTA) — Russian lawmakers want to be sure that their next prime minister is not an Israeli.

The speaker of the Russian Parliament's lower house, Gennady Seleznev, announced on Friday of last week that the body has requested information from the government on whether acting prime minister Sergei Kiriyenko has Israeli as well as Russian citizenship.

Kiriyenko was named by President Boris Yeltsin as prime minister after Yeltsin recently dismissed his entire Cabinet. He is awaiting parliamentary approval.

The State Duma, as the house is known, faced a deadline today for approving or rejecting the president's choice.

In a television interview following his appointment as acting premier, Kiriyenko was asked about his ethnic background and replied that his father is Jewish and his mother is Russian.

The Duma's move surprised many observers. Kiriyenko has never expressed any public interest in Judaism and has reportedly never visited the Jewish state.

Russian law prohibits a person who has a passport from a foreign country to hold public office.

Lithuanian president rebuffs neo-Nazis

MOSCOW (JTA) — Lithuania's president has rejected an appeal by a neo-Nazi group to be officially recognized as a political group.

President Valdus Adamkus denied the request because he is "convinced that a democratic society cannot put up with organizations instigating racial and religious discord," according to a presidential spokesman.

The neo-Nazi group, known as the Lithuanian National Socialist Union, had pledged to "clean" the country of all its minorities.

Founded two years ago in the northern Lithuanian city of Siauliai, the group claims to have 800 members. The group's flag bears a white swastika on a red background.

The National Socialists had appealed to the president to override an earlier Justice Ministry decision not to grant registration to the organization.

Russian TV poll shows anti-Semitic beliefs

MOSCOW (JTA) –The belief that Jews commit ritual murders is alive and well in Russia.

Recently, some 46 percent of callers to a Russian television station said they believed that Jews commit ritual murders.

The television anchor who posed the question during a nationwide broadcast said he was shocked by the high level of anti-Semitism among the 3,500 viewers who phoned in.

Andrei Cherkizov, the anchor who posed the question, is Jewish.

Swiss report cites 700 looted works of art

ZURICH (JTA) — A Swiss newspaper reported that more than 700 artworks looted by the Nazis are being held by museums and private collectors in Switzerland.

The Sonntags Blick, citing a Swiss historian, said the artworks have an estimated value of several million dollars.