RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS

Russia Religion News Current News Items

---

Jehovah's Witnesses threatened with wide-ranging case

PREACHING WITH TOUCH OF EXTREMISM
Criminal case opened in Orenburg province against 3000-member society of Jehovah's Witnesses, which has existed now for 18 years
by Vladimir Gordeev
Gazeta.ru, 5 May 2012

Authorities continue pressure on Jehovah's Witnesses. The Investigation Administration of the Investigative Committee [SUSK] for Orenburg province discovered extremism in the activity of the regional church of Jehovah's Witnesses and opened a criminal case against the organization, which had not provoked suspicions among law enforcement officials in the course of 18 years.

On Saturday the Investigative Committee of Orenburg province reported the opening of the criminal case against the Jehovah's Witnesses religious organization. Adherents of the belief in the imminent end of the world and the return of Christ are suspected of extremism. "A criminal case has been opened regarding indicators of the crime stipulated in part 1 article 282 of the Criminal Code of RF (inciting enmity or strife along with demeaning human dignity)" a report of the provincial SUSK says.

Orenburg investigators consider all the proclamation work of Jehovah's Witnesses within the populace of the province to be extremist. The criminal case was opened not regarding specific actions of individual representatives of the society but "for the very activity" of the entire religious organization that has existed in the province since the beginning of the 1990s.

Witnesses have been active in the province since June 1994. In this time representatives of the religious society have frequently conducted mass events and preaching at which they expressed judgments "directed at inciting enmity and strife along with demeaning of the dignity of individuals and groups of persons on the basis of religious identity," the investigators note. The report does not say against representatives of which religion they incited hatred. The provincial SUSK was also not able to answer this question. "In order to clarify this it is necessary to contact the investigator who is conducting the case, but he is not here now. It is simply physically impossible to answer," the senior assistant director of SUSK for Orenburg province, Anzhelika Linkova, told Gazeta.ru.

Operational support for the case of the Orenburg Jehovah's Witnesses was conducted by personnel of the provincial administration of FSB and MVD, specifically the Center for Combating Extremism (Center E) of Orenburg province. Materials of the FSB directorate and the provincial Center E served as the basis for opening the criminal case under article 282. Agents and investigators had these materials after conducting more than 15 searches in the religious society.

During the searches law enforcement agents seized "a substantial quantity of objects having evidentiary value for the case," including some literature. "But what kind of literature this is I cannot tell you now," Linkova said. They also refused to talk about details of the case at the provincial directorate of MVD. "The inspector for relations with news media of the Investigative Committee has forbidden us to release any information." She said that all details have been removed from their website. "Everything comes only through them," Gazeta.ru was told at the MVD directorate. For now investigators are only delineating the range of suspects, Linkova says. "Investigative actions are under way."

Any representative of the provincial organization of Jehovah's Witnesses who speaks at topical public events, or preaches, or distributes literature could become a potential target of the criminal case opened by the Orenburg SUSK. According to SUSK information,  there are on the order of 3,000 believers in the imminent end of the world in the region. Actually we are talking about a total ban on the activity of the Witnesses in a particular region. "This is a network that operates throughout all of Russia. That needs to be understood," Linkova noted.

Experts consider the Orenburg case against Jehovah's Witnesses to be a continuation of a nationwide campaign aimed at curtailing the society's activity throughout the country. "This campaign began rather suddenly in 2009 and has continued to the present," the director of the SOVA Information and Analysis Center, Alexander Verkhovskii, told Gazeta.ru. "They began pressure in all directions. At first large-scale prosecutorial investigations were organized, and then fire departments were engaged, and finally they began looking for extremism." The expert does not see any special motives in the anti-Jehovist campaign; he says "it is rather irrational." "It is understandable when pressure is exerted on political organizations, but Jehovah's Witnesses are completely harmless people and so I cannot understand the authorities' actions," Verkhovskii says. He is amazed about the article under which the criminal case in Orenburg province has been opened. The expert says that usually a case against Jehovists is conducted under article 282.2 of the criminal code (continuation of activity of a prohibited organization) on the basis of court decisions in other regions. "Maybe there is some mistake, but in any case nothing will prevent a reclassification of the case in the future," the expert notes. Verkhovskii mentions that the criminal case itself gives practically unlimited possibilities for investigators to pressure Jehovists. "They can conduct searches and interrogations when and how they wish. But in any case they have to find a suspect and take him to court. Another scenario would be for the case to be closed by a decision from above, but one should not count on this," the director of the SOVA center suggests.

Activity by Jehovists is officially banned in two regions in Russia. In 2004 a Moscow City Court banned the Moscow organizations of Witnesses, which was one of the largest in Russia. This decision was challenged in the European Court for Human Rights, which found that during the judicial procedure the rights of members of the Moscow religious society to judicial protection were violated. In 2009 the society was banned in Rostov province.

Jehovah's Witnesses are an international religious organization with an administrative center in New York. Until 1931 the organization was called "Students of the Bible." According to the calculation of the organization itself, Jehovists number 7,659,019 throughout the world. There are 162,182 Jehovists in Russia, according to statistics from 2010. The teaching of Jehovists is based on their own interpretation of the Bible. According to the official website of the organization, adherents of the society call the only God Jehovah. Jehovists deny the doctrine of the immortality of the soul and they believe in the imminent end of the world. They think that the soul is the individual himself, like any other living creature. Jehovists conduct active work with the populace; they preach in public places, distribute literature, and welcome all who wish to participate in their events. In the USA Jehovah's Witnesses are officially registered as a religious and publishing organization.

Jehovah's Witnesses are one of the most persecuted by Russian authorities religious organizations. Pressure is applied also at the administrative level. For example, in October 2011 in Bashkiriia the republican Ministry of Education sent to subordinate institutions and schools a letter warning of the danger "of foreign religious organizations of a destructive type." The letter, signed by the deputy minister of education of Bashkiriia, Artur Surin, pointed out that the number of such destructive organizations had reached almost 100. These included Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientology, the church of Moon, Mormons, Pentecostals, Adventists, and Baptists. In the bureaucrat's opinion, representatives of these denominations display "criminal" methods of work with the populace and therefore they should have access to republican educational institutions only with a letter of recommendation from the ministry. The directorate of MVD for Moscow province has launched a special program for combating Jehovah's Witnesses under the label "Apostates." In Cheliabinsk province local authorities created a special commission consisting of representatives of the local power structures and officials of the provincial administration, which recommended that the authorities ban the activity of Witnesses in the region. (tr. by PDS, posted 8 May 2012)

Russian original posted on Portal-credo.ru site, 8 May 2012

Russia Religion News Current News Items

---

On eve of inauguration Putin donates icon to church

PUTIN VISITS CHURCH WHERE HE IS PRAYED FOR "ROUND THE CLOCK"
Anchoresses sing uninterrupted psalter in this church and pray for Putin's health
Grani, 6 May 2012

President-elect Vladimir Putin delivered to the Novodevichy monastery the most ancient copy of the Iberian Mother of God icon, participated in a procession of the cross, and visited the baptismal church of St. Prince Vladimir, located in the basement of the Dormition church of the cloister, RIA Novosti reports. Accompanied by Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill and the abbess of the convent, Hegumena Margarita, Putin descended into this small church and set a candle before the icon of Prince Vladimir.

The abbess told the premier that in recent years, in this church anchoresses sing round the clock the uninterrupted psalter and pray for his health. Putin also was invited to view an exhibit of ancient icons from the church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, located in one of the buildings of the convent. Hegumena Margarita described how several of these icons have been awaiting restoration for decades, and the patriarch called the premier's attention to a number of unique icons of western icon painters that are substantially different from works of Orthodox artists. . . . (tr. by PDS, posted 7 May 2012)

Russian original posted on Portal-credo.ru site, 7 May 2012


PUTIN SETS CANDLE BEFORE ICON OF PRINCE VLADIMIR
Interfax-Religiia, 7 May 2012

On the eve of his inauguration, after delivering a copy of the Iberian icon of the Mother of God to the Novodevichy monastery, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the baptismal church of his heavenly patron, Saint Prince Vladimir.

Accompanied by Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill and the abbess of the monastery, Hegumena Margarita, V. Putin descended into this small church located in the basement of the Dormition church. He set a candle before the icon of Prince Vladimir. . . .

V. Putin walked about the grounds of the monastery and conversed with parishioners. (tr. by PDS, posted 7 May 2012)


IMPOSSIBLE TO IMAGINE RUSSIAN STATEHOOD OR CULTURE WITHOUT CHURCH—PUTIN
Interfax-Religiia, 7 May 2012

Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin delivered on Sunday to the Moscow Novodevichy monastery the most ancient copy of the Iberian icon of the Mother of God in Rus. Along with Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill and Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna Yuvenaly, V. Putin participated in a procession of the cross during which the icon was carried by the clergy of the Moscow diocese from the cloister's gates into the Smolensk cathedral, where a prayer service was conducted before it.

Addressing the patriarch in the cathedral, the newly elected head of state recalled that "this sacred object accompanied our ancestors over the course of centuries, both in peaceful labors and on military campaigns, including in the liberation of Smolensk from foreign invaders in the middle of the 17th century."  He urged remembering that "without the Russian Orthodox Church it is impossible to imagine either Russian statehood or our culture." "The Russian Orthodox Church, like other traditional confessions, is the preserver of our moral values," V. Putin said. He declared that he was delivering the icon to the church with a feeling of happiness. "May it serve and aid people," V. Putin said.

In his turn, Patriarch Kirill called the delivery to the church of the sacred item an historic event which "has great significance for the life of our church, for the life of every believer, and the life of the country." He emphasized that the icon has been donated with the full consent of the museum community and with the support of the Ministry of Culture "and all those people who know the spiritual and cultural value of this image."

"We will pray before this miracle working icon. I would like to announce that the first public prayer before this image and its first veneration will be held on 24 May at one p.m. on St. Basil's Slope, where we will open the Church-State Holiday of Slavic Literature and Culture with a special public prayer service," the primate said.

He also congratulated V. Putin on his election to the post of president. "I would like to congratulate you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, on your election. May God grant that with the prayers of the church before this miracle working image your activity in the office of president will be conducted in peace and national prosperity," Patriarch Kirill said.

Then he served a prayer service before the image.

Many hundreds of believers had gathered in the church, including many children. Some held printed representations of the Iberian icon of the Mother of God in their hands.

On his part, Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told Interfax that during the transfer of the icon "all necessary procedures were conducted quite fast." He recalled that the initiator was V.Putin himself. (tr. by PDS, posted 7 May 2012)


MOST ANCIENT COPY OF IBERIAN ICON OF THEOTOKOS IN RUS TO BE DELIVERED TO NOVODEVICHY MONASTERY
Portal-credo.ru, 4 May 2012

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on 6 May will deliver to the Novodevichy monastery the most ancient copy of the Iberian icon of the Mother of God in Rus. This was reported by Lenta.ru, citing the web site of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (RPTsMP).

Patriarch Kirill and Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna Yuvenaly will participate in the delivery of the icon. Hierarchs of RPTsMP will carry the image from the gates of the cloister to the Smolensk cathedral. There a prayer service will be performed before the icon.

Monastic priest Yamvlikh Romanov of Mt. Athos created the copy of the Iberian icon in 1648 for Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich Romanov. In 1654 the monarch took the icon on a victorious campaign against the Poles and upon his return placed it in the Smolensk cathedral.

The image was kept in the Novodevichy monastery more than 300 years. Only once, in 1913, was it removed from the cloister for a public veneration on the occasion of the jubilee of the House of Romanov. After the revolution, the monastery was closed and the icon was transferred to the collection of the Historical Museum.

The 1648 copy is an exact reproduction of the Iberian icon that is kept on Mt. Athos, whose painter, according to tradition, was St. Luke the Evangelist. (tr. by PDS, posted 7 May 2012)



Russia Religion News Current News Items

---

If material is quoted, please give credit to the publication from which it came.

It is not necessary to credit this Web page. If material is transmitted electronically, please include reference to the URL, http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/.