By Steve Fidel
Deseret News staff writer

The chairman of a committee setting policies on church relations for Russian President Boris Yeltsin is visiting Salt Lake City as a guest of the Utah-Russia Institute.
Anatoly Nichociovich Lashinski has been in Utah since Monday, visiting with church officials and others. He attended the church's general conference meetings over the weekend. Church President Gordon B. Hinckley acknowledged Lashinski's presence from the pulpit in the Tabernacle Sunday morning.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said the visit demonstrates a significant change from the time of a harsh exchange of political rhetoric last summer. In June, Gen. Alexander Lebed, then Yeltsin's election-season choice for national security director, characterized members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as, translated from Russian, "mold and filth which have come to destroy the state." He also excluded Jews from the "established, traditional religions" he said Russia recognizes, raising concerns of anti-Semitism.
A counterattack on the floor of the U.S. Senate followed from the Senate's three members of the LDS Church — Hatch and Bob Bennett, R-Utah, and Harry Reid, D-Nev.; and from two Jewish senators — Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa. Other senators also chimed in.
The church issued a statement saying it was confident Lebed's comments were based on a misunderstanding of the church's role and activities in Russia, where the church was officially recognized by the government in 1991.
Church members in Russia told the Deseret News at the time they were concerned about the remarks but put it in the category of "brash election talk."
Hatch told the Deseret News Sunday he has talked with Lashinski several times, sitting next to him in the Tabernacle during several of the church's conference sessions and meeting with the official for an hour in the senator's office.
If the Russian official came to Utah with any doubts about the character of the Mormons, "I think we've done a pretty darn good job convincing him otherwise," Hatch said.