Communicated by the Foreign Ministry Spokesman Jerusalem, 12 November 1998 Response to antisemitic remarks by Russian General   Knesset Speaker Dan Tichon today (Thursday) 12.11.98, sent a letter to the Chairman of the Russian Duma, Gennady Salzanyov, in which he expressed his disappointment at the failure of the vote in the Duma to condemn the anti-Semitic remarks recently made by the Communist deputy General Makshov, both in the Duma and at demonstrations in Moscow and throughout Russia. The Communist faction in the Duma was particularly strident in its opposition to the proposed condemnation. The Israeli ambassador to the Russian Federation has been instructed to express an official protest to the Duma Chairman and the leader of the Russian Communist Party. Israel is following events with concern, and hopes that the Russian authorities will work to put an end to antisemitic and anti-Zionist statements of this kind.