 After the general's call for expulsion of all Jews at a public meeting in 1999, there were attempts to prosecute him for hate speech; the newspaper "Kommersant" ran an article about him named "Makashov — Zoological Antisemite".David Duke, who visited Moscow in 1999, met Makashov and expressed his support for the General.Makashov was among the signatories of the "Letter of 500", which was described as "an appeal to the prosecutor general urging him to review the activity of all due to their alleged extremism" against non-Jews.