REPRESENTATIVE OF FSB IN TIUMEN PROVINCE UPSET BY ACTIVITY OF PROTESTANTS
SOVA Center for News and Analysis, 28 June 2016
In Tiumen province, a representative of the FSB declared that the activity of protestant organizations threatens the security of Russia and facilitates the "intensification of religious contradictions."
On 2 June 2016 a meeting of the Interagency Commission for Combating Extremist Activity of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Yugra [Khanty-Mansiiskii Avtonomous Okrug—KhMAO] was held. Participating in it, in particular, was the deputy chief of the regional directorate of the Russian RSB for Tiumen province, Maksim Baranov. In his address he expressed concern with regard to activity of protestant organizations on the territory of the region. . . . (tr. by PDS, posted 28 June 2016)
DOCUMENT: ON
COMBATING DESTRUCTIVE ACTIVITY OF NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS ON
TERRITORY OF
KHANTY-MANSIYSK AUTONOMOUS OKRUG-YUGRA
Combating
religious extremism is among the priority goals of the service
operational
activity of the Russian Directorate of the Federal Security
Service for the
Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug in Tiumen province. An analysis
of information
coming in attests that despite measures being taken,
circumstances in the line of
combating religious extremism have a tendency to become
complicated.
According to
statistics of the Administration of the Federal Registration
Service of the
Russian Ministry of Justice for KhMAO-Yugra, on the territory of
the okrug
there are about 130 registered religious associations. The
principal religious
confessions are Orthodoxy and Islam. The leading position of
Orthodoxy is based
on the number of parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church of the
Moscow
patriarchate and its special position that has developed in
Russia, including
on the territory of KhMAO. With respect to other confessions,
the dioceses of
the RPTsMP recognize only Islam as traditional for Russia and
the region, and
they observe open opposition to protestant organizations in
KhMAO.
At the present
time, there are in KhMAO representations of these protestant
organizations: the
Voice of Faith Church of Christians of the Whole Gospel, the
church of
Evangelical Christians-Baptists, the church of Christians of
Evangelical Faith,
Jehovah's Witnesses, the Voice of Truth Church, churches of
Christian
Seventh-Day Adventists, and the Whole Gospel Church of Jesus
Christ the Living
God. According to estimates of specialists, the total number of
protestants on
the territory of KhMAO is on the order of 3,500.
Information: in
2015 incidents of destructive missionary activity by protestant
religious
organizations among minor indigenous peoples of the north were
discovered. The
measures that were adopted permitted bringing a believer (a
citizen of Finland)
to administrative accountability and deporting him outside of
the RF, with
entry denied for 5 years.
A Yugorsk
district court held the director of the local branch of the
Jehovah's Witnesses
religious organization of the city of Yugorsk administratively
accountable on
the basis of article 20.29 of the Code on Administrative
Violations of Law of
the RF. In order to prevent continuation of extremist activity,
the Yugorsk
district prosecutor's office issued a warning to the director.
In addition to
religious organizations of a protestant orientation, attempts
have been made to
spread the ideas of the Church of Scientology on the territory
of KhMAO (city
of Surgut and Surgut district). Thus, the Moscow Church of
Scientology
instructed the group of Scientologists in Surgut to increase
preaching activity
among the population of the region (one of these attempts was
shut off in
January 2011 by means of the confiscation of 10,000 leaflets),
and to devote
special attention to agitation work in the schools, public
organizations, and
hospitals.
In addition,
protestants have conducted social work in a number of
rehabilitation centers
for work with drug addicts. Protestants use the indicated
measures as a means
of evangelizing the population. Representatives of churches of
Evangelical
Christians-Baptists actively support Pentecostals in their
evangelism.
According to
estimates of specialists, the ideology of religious
organizations that are
confessions that are not traditional for Russia leads to an
intensification of
religious contradictions and, on the whole, facilitates the
development of
threats to the security of the Russian federation in the
socio-political
sphere. At the same time, because of the low level of missionary
activity by
the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow patriarchate and other
traditional
religions among the population, an increase in representatives
of foreign
religious groups is predicted, including the goal of increasing
the number of
devotees.
In view of the
foregoing, we suggest that it is appropriate to take the
following measures:
--The Russian
MVD for KhMAO-Yugra, in cooperation with the prosecutor's office
of KhMAO-Yugra
and the Directorate of the Ministry of Justice of the RF for
KhMAO-Yugra,
should conduct a verification of the legality of the activity of
religious
organizations that are registered on the territory of the okrug,
compliance
with charter activity, and also the existence of forbidden
literature;
--the
KhMAO-Yugra Department of Education and Youth Policy should
conduct a
verification in educational institutions of the okrug to find
the occurrence of
incidents of drawing minor citizens into the activity of
protestant religious
organizations. (tr. by PDS, posted 28 June 2016)
Russian original posted on website of Department
for
Domestic Policy of KhMAO
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