PRAYER IS NOT FOR TOURISTS
Two Americans fined for "religious
contacts"
by Roman Lunkin
Religiia
i Pravo, 15 September 2016
On 10 September 2016, two American
citizens, Alexandra
Whitney and David Kozan, along with their minor daughter,
Catherine, were
arrested in Kaluga. The result of a five-hour interrogation was
a police report
according to which Whitney and Kozan were fined 3,000 rubles
each, without
deportation from Russia, for administrative violation of law.
The Americans were traveling as
tourists, but they
decided to worship a bit, as they are protestant Pentecostals
and friends of
the Kaluga "Word of Life" church of Christians of Evangelical
Faith
(Pentecostals) and its leader, Bishop Albert Ratkin. Local
authorities have
been trying for more than ten years now to take away from this
church the building
of the church of Christ the Savior on Nebesnaia [Heavenly]
Street.
On 9 to 11 September 2016, a conference
was held in
the house of worship of this church (the church of Christ the
Savior of
Kaluga), which was devoted to the 80th anniversary of the
Pentecostal church in
Kaluga. Believers reckon that their congregation, and the
Pentecostal movement
in Kaluga as a whole, were established in 1936 by one of the
famous leaders of
the protestant movement in Russia, Ivan Voronaev, who was in
exile here.
The American citizens Whitney and Kozan
greeted their
fellow believers and watched a film and historical drama about
the life and
ministry of Ivan Voronaev. The worship service also was attended
by Sergei
Riakhovsky, the bishop of the Russian Associated Union of
Christians of
Evangelical Faith (Pentecostals) and member of the Public
Chamber of the RF.
Without a doubt, the foreign guests
were not simply
Americans who dropped in on the church. David Kozan is an
engineer who in the
1990s served four years as a missionary in Russia. Alexandra
Whitney is a high
school teacher. However the fact that they had preached in
Russia does not make
them flawed or suspicious people.
The bishop of the Kaluga church of
Christ the Savior,
Albert Ratkin, said that around 22.00 [10:00 p.m] on 10
September 2016, the
Americans were met outside the gates of the house of worship by
several
security officers and agents of the FSB. District Police Major
Sergei Dokukov
confiscated the passports of the American citizens and gave them
back only
after they threatened to summon the consul. Representatives of
the church note
that not only the officer but also the police translator
identified themselves
as law enforcement agents: "David Kozan tried to make a joke
that he had
already seen such night-time interrogations and such treatment
of people in a
movie. The translator rendered this as if he had asked to be
shown a movie."
At 2:00 a.m. police Lieutenant Vladimir
Grenkov
composed a statement about administrative violation of the laws
on entry into
the country and "establishment of religious contacts." In it he
noted
that these "religious contacts" were conducted by the Americans
on 10
September from 16.00 to 21.00, although they had arrived on a
tourist visa. The
lieutenant declared that he had a secret recording of the
"religious
contacts" by the American citizens from a private informant,
whom he did
not allow the accused to meet.
As Vladimir Riakhovsky, an attorney and
member of the
presidential Council on Human Rights of the RF, notes, American
citizens have
the full right of participation in worship services of the
evangelical church
in Kaluga. Freedom of confession of one's faith is guaranteed on
the territory
of Russia by the constitution of the RF to all, both Russian
citizens and foreigners.
Participation in a worship service, and even greetings delivered
in the church,
do not in any way violate the visa system, the rules of visiting
on a tourist
visa. Otherwise, Vladimir Riakhovsky says, it turns out that
foreigners coming
to Russia are not permitted to enter Russian churches and
worship. And foreign
citizens who have received a humanitarian visa and permission
for missionary
activity, are not permitted to get on a tourist bus and engage
in tourism. By
such logic it turns out that people coming, for example, on a
business visa are
not permitted to visit tourist attractions and to worship.
However this is an
absurd conclusion that contradicts the spirit and letter of the
Russian
constitution and the law on freedom of conscience.
Due to the amendment about missionary
activity within
the context of the Yarovaya Package, a special ideology of the
new legislation
has begun to be formulated. First of all, any preaching, prayer,
or
conversation about God have fallen under suspicion that has
always been noted
by rights advocates as the natural consequence of a system of
fines for
preaching. As a result, the law has been applied in practice
extremely broadly
and has, in fact, crossed the boundaries of the Yarovaya
Package. For reasons
known only to law enforcement agencies, any religious activity
of foreign
citizens has come to be considered actually illegal. A
characteristic example:
on 14 September, a Kemerovo court fined a Ukrainian citizen 30
thousand rubles,
for speaking at a meeting of a Pentecostal church. While she was
specifically
followed and her sermon was recorded on video, they could arrest
her only at a
traffic checkpoint on the way to the airport.
Informants, secret recordings, and
chases have
appeared in religious life. One would like to know why it is
Christian
preaching that provokes such attempts to employ all these
espionage skills. (tr
by PDS, posted 20 September 2016)
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