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Upper chamber of Russian parliament may review religion law

COUNCIL OF THE FEDERATION TO REVIEW LAW ON FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE ON JULY 4.

On 27 June it was announced in the press service of the upper house of the Russian parliament that the Council of the Federation will review the law on July 4, the text of which, adopted by the State Duma on June 23, already has arrived at the Council of the Federatin. Serveral senators have begun to study it. However, the representative of the press service explained, the law may not even be reviewed by the upper chamber because its subject mattter is not among those that require confirmation by the Council of the Federation. If the deputies of the upper house do not have enough time on July 4, then the new law will be sent immediately to the president of Russia. (tr. by PDS)

from Orthodox Christianity in Russia

(posted 30 June 1997)

Patriarch doubts canonization of Nicholas II

RUSSIAN PRELATE: DON'T CANONIZE CZAR
Associated Press, 27 June 1997

MOSCOW (AP) -- Sainthood should not be bestowed on Russia's last czar, who was killed by the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution, the head of the Russian Orthodox church said Friday.

Patriarch Alexy II echoed earlier resolutions by Russian Orthodox religious leaders, saying that Czar Nicholas II and his family did not deserve that honor because of the way they ruled the country and led the church before being executed in 1918.

``His life, his actions ... the first Russian revolution, abdication -- all of this is regarded by the church and society in an ambivalent way,'' Alexy II was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying. But he said Nicholas II and his family may qualify for a special category known as ``passion sufferers'' -- people who endure terrible deaths with grace. ``We do not consider it possible to canonize Nicholas II as it was proposed by some religious and public figures in Russia,'' the patriarch said.

Sainthood for the czar has been seen as a way for the nation to atone for the excesses of the Russian Revolution and the Communist regimes it brought to power. But canonization of Nicholas II has also been promoted by Russian monarchists and chauvinists, causes from which the Russian Orthodox Church has sought to distance itself.

Alexy II said that the question of sainthood for the czar will be reviewed by the Church's Local Council, scheduled to convene in 2000. Earlier this year, the Holy Synod and the Assembly of Bishops advised against canonization of Nicholas II, but suggested that he may receive the title of passion sufferer.

c Copyright 1997 The Associated Press

RUSSIAN PATRIARCH OPPOSES CANONIZING LAST CZAR
Reuter, 27 June 1997

MOSCOW (Reuter) - The head of Russia's Orthodox Church said Friday he opposed moves to canonise Russia's last czar, Nicholas II, who was murdered with his family by Bolshevik revolutionaries in 1918.

``We do not consider it possible to canonize Nicholas II, as some Russian religious and public figures propose,'' Interfax news agency quoted Patriarch Alexiy II as telling a group of Russian journalists.

Interfax said Alexiy criticized some aspects of the czar's life, including his links with the mysterious monk Grigory Rasputin who wielded great influence over the czar's family. The czar, his wife and their children were killed in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918, just months after the Bolshevik revolution which paved the way to communist rule.

The question of canonizing the czar has been under debate since the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. A council of bishops opted in February not to recommend canonizing him but left the final decision to a broader assembly of clergy and parishioners.

Continuing another controversial debate, Alexiy reiterated his view that Russians should not to rush to bury late communist leader and Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin, whose embalmed body lies in a mausoleum on Moscow's Red Square. ``It is a debatable issue which should not lead to a split in society and a split among believers. Generations of those for whom Lenin was a symbol are still alive,'' Interfax quoted him as saying. The fate of Lenin's corpse is the subject of heated debate. President Boris Yeltsin wants the body moved and buried, and has proposed holding a national referendum on the issue. The Communist-led State Duma, the lower house of parliament, urged Russian citizens and authorities this week to oppose burying Lenin. They called it ``an act of political revenge.''

(posted 30 June 1997)

Orthodox archbishop supports new religion law

REPRESENTATIVES OF TRADITIONAL CONFESSIONS OF RUSSIA CONTINUE TO DISCUSS FEDERAL LAW "ON FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE AND RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATIONS," ADOPTED ON THIRD READING IN THE STATE DUMA

ITAR-TASS, 26 June 1997

Moscow, 26 June. Archbishop Sergius of Solnechnogorsk, the administrator of affairs of the Moscow patriarchate, called the federal law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations," adopted on Monday on third reading by the State Duma, an expression of the concern of the government for its people and for the defense of their rights and interests.

In an interview today with an ITAR-TASS correspondent, the bishop stressed that "in the document a serious attempt has been made to find a compromise in the resolution of the complex problems of religious life." He said that the law reflects a sober governmental approach to the appearance of all kinds of religions that are new to Russia and it establishes a legal basis for regulating the activity of foreign preachers and the formation of new religious societies, which from now on can receive the status of juridical person only after fifteen years of existence in Russia. "This length of time will be enough to ascertain their belief system," Archbishop Sergius stressed, considering that Russia should not become a testing ground forexperiments on the souls of people with little known and even questionable ideas and world views.

"The law guarantees the right and freedom of every person to profess any religion or to profess none at all," the bishop continued. "However, this free choice must be conscientious. The educated person of our time simply must know his own profound spiritual roots, study that religion which his ancestors professed, and recognize himself as a Russian, which by character and mentality is to be different from people who live in some other corner of the planet." And thus, he considers, there is great meaning in the new term in the law, "traditional religions," whichearlier had been considered unconstitutional. "Russia must not blindly mirror the USA, where for historical reasons there has been a multitude of religious views. The experience of our homeland testifies differently: it is impossible to divide the country into tiny sects and cults and then talk about unity. It is very important to understand this in order to stabilize the situation in our country," Archbishop Sergius declared.

The document should be reviewed on June 2 (sic) in the Council of the Federation, after which it will be transmitted for approval to the president of the Russian Federation. (tr. by PDS)

26.06.97
Russian text:ITAR-TASS

(posted 30 June 1997)

CONTROVERSY OVER LAW ON RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS.
RFERL 30 June 1997

State Duma deputy and Democratic Russia co-leader Galina Starovoitova says the law on religious organizations recently passed by the Duma violates the Russian Constitution and international law, ITAR-TASS reported on 27 June. In particular, Starovoitova criticized a provision that would grant certain rights only to religious groups that can prove they have existed in Russia for at least 15 years (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 24 June 1997). Vyacheslav Polosin, an Orthodox priest who advised the Duma committee that drafted the law, told RFE/RL's Moscow bureau on 25 June that this provision would not punish all religious groups that were banned during the Soviet period. By way of example, he argued that Hare Krishnas could meet the 15-year test because official documents dating to 1980 show that some Soviet citizens were sentenced to prison for belonging to the sect.

(posted 30 June 1997)

Orthodox priest opposes new religion law

TRADITIONALIST ORTHODOX PRIEST OPPOSES DUMA'S BILL
by Lawrence A. Uzzell,
Keston News Service
26 June 1997

'There are no prohibitions against other Orthodox denominations in the new legislation on religious bodies recently passed by the lower house of the Russian parliament,' said Viktor Kalinin, legal adviser to Orthodox Patriarch Aleksi of Moscow in an interview with an American journalist. Fr Mikhail Makeyev, a priest of the Russian Orthodox Free Church's only parish in Russia's capital, disagreed. 'If this bill becomes law,' he told Keston News Service in a 24 June interview, 'our rental contract will be annulled immediately and we will be kicked out onto the street'.

Supporters of the legislation, which received final approval from the Duma on 23 June, have repeatedly said that it is directed against denominations and sects newly imported from aborad and 'non-traditional' in Russia. When a Keston representative discussed the bill with a high-ranking official in President Yeltsin's administration on 25 June, the official expressed surprise on hearing that the proposal's '15-year rule' would deny full legal rights not only to religious bodies which did not exist in 1982, but also to churches which did exist then but were not formally registered by the Soviet authorities. Such churches include all the dissident Orthodox bodies which refused to compromise with what was then a totalitarian atheist state - in other words, all Russian Orthodox groups other than the Moscow Patriarchate. These include both Fr Mikhail's jurisdiction and the quasi-underground True Orthodox Church.

The 15-year rule would also deny the rights of 'legal personalities' to congregations of the Russian Orthodox Church Aborad, which traces its descent to pre-Bolshevik Russian Orthodoxy through bishops and priests who fled abroad after the Russian Civil War. This body is now trying to re-establish itself in its members' ancestral homeland.

'This legislation was passed with one goal,' Fr Mikhail told Keston, 'to enable the state to register officially only those confessions which recognised Stalin.' He said that if Yeltsin signs the bill, 'we'll continue if necessary as an illicit religion'. He predicted that his church would still manage to function but that 'we will be like the birds of the air', with nowhere to meet for worship except the private flats of the faithful. 'Our last fortress', he said, 'will be our bishop Viktor' - whose diocesan see in Latvia lies outside Russia's current boundaries. He said that his parish's rector, Fr Mikhail Ardov, had appeared on Russian television to argue against the new legislation.

Fr Mikhail said that several aspects of the Duma's proposal were even more authoritarian than pre-glasnost Soviet law. The old law, he said, assigned church buildings to the use of parishes rather than to centralised structures such as the Moscow Patriarchate. The new legislation would deny Orthodox parishes the right to own buildings and other real estate unless they are affiliated with a religious organisation which was legally registered in 1982. If in addition to this legislation the Duma accepts the Patriarchate's proposals for 'restitution' of church properties, Fr Mikhail told Keston, his jurisdiction will lose all the historic church buildings which it gained in cities such as Kazan and Suzdal when congregations there chose to affiliate with the Orthodox Free Church rather than with the Patriarchate.

Keston asked Fr Mikhail what he thinks of the proposed restrictions on non- Orthodox faiths such as the Baptists. He replied that 'Russia has gone through an irreversible process. It's no longer an Orthodox country, only a small fraction of Russians are now consciously Orthodox'. He pointed out that this year only about 700,000 Muscovites - about 7 percent of the city's population - attended Orthodox services on Easter, the church calendar's holiest day. 'We now know that Orthodoxy never will be a state church here', he said. 'My preference for church-state relations is that we not interfere with each other.'

While advocating tolerance between confessions, Fr Mikhail considers himself a doctrinal and liturgical traditionalist. 'What Orthodox conservatism is about is not anti-Semitism or ultra-nationalism', he told Keston, 'but the observance of the ancient Orthodox canons'.

Fr Mikhail said that his own parish has been legally registered in Moscow for the last five years, but he thinks that the city authorities have allowed it to survive 'only because we have only one parish here, and it is located on the edge of the city and is hard to get to'. (The parish rents space in the morgue of a municipal cemetery.) He said that the parish has about 100 active members. In the country as a whole, he told Keston, the Russian Orthodox Free Church now has more than 100 parishes and five bishops. (END)

(posted 30 June 1997)

Russian government commission reviews nontraditional religions

ANXIETY WITH REGARD TO THE GROWTH OF THE NUMBER OF ADHERENTS OF NONTRADITIONAL RELIGIONS IN RUSSIA EXPRESSED BY MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION FOR AFFAIRS OF RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATIONS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION GOVERNMENT AT SESSION IN MOSCOW.

ITAR-TASS

Moscow 20 June. Another five thousand followers of Vissarion, leader of the so-called Church of the New Testament, have assembled this summer to swell the ranks of its members who live in the south of Kransnoiarsk Territory. This was reported at the Commission on Affairs of Religious Associations of the Russian Federation Government, which met today in Moscow under the presidency of Vice Premier Oleg Sysuev. According to Liudmila Grigoreva, president of the Council on Relations with Religious Associations of the Territory, in Krasnoiarsk, this sect has gathered strength rapidly. At the present in Minusinsk alone there are around three thousand of its members. The sect has eight registered congregations in Russia and around thirty in the republics of the former USSR. "We are trying as best we can to help these people who have voluntarily placed themselves in a difficult living situation," she said. "However we consider that this problem must be solved not at the local but at the all-Russian level."

The overwhelming majority of the people arriving in Minusinsk are members of the intelligentsia, the president of the council said. Fifty-five percent of those living in the settlement have higher education. The council, which is a part of the administration of the territorial governor, conducted an investigation of the health of the followers of Vissarion. Thanks to the work of physicians, they managed to get the prohibition on the use of milk products removed and to eliminate restriction on food for pregnant women. With the help of clinics they prevented an outbreak of tuberculosis that was beginning among the Vissarionites. Members of the council succeeded in getting all of the children to begin attending public schools.

Concern was expressed at the commission's session about the wide distribution within Russia of nontraditional religions and cults and about their negative influence on youth. Whereas in 1990 in Russia there were 5.5 thousand new religious movements registered in Russia, at present that number has doubled.

Until recently there has been practically no legal basis in the country for resisting these phenomena of religious life. It was noted with regret at the session that the 1993 amendments to the Criminal Code of the RF, dealing with responsibility of associations that infringed upon the person and rights of citizens, have not worked fully. Thus in 1994-1996 only two persons have been convicted in Russian courts for such crimes. As a result twenty subject regions of the RF have been forced to adopt local legislation that restrict or forbid the activity of foreign missionaries.

20.06.97

Full Russian text (requires KOI-8): Trevogu v sviazy uvlicheniem chisla

Additional report from commission's meeting: ITAR-TASS

Additional information about Vissarion's sect: If you are believers

(posted 25 June)

Final lower house approval of religion law

THE DUMA HAS "LEGALIZED" FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE

Segodnia, 24 June

INTERFAX.The State Duma of the RF adopted the entirety of the law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Association," which now has been sent for review of the Council of the Federation. The law establishes in particular that local religious organizations are created on the initiative of adult citizens, associated in a religious group that has existed no less than fifteen years. Commenting on the present law, the president of the Committee on Defense of Freedom of Conscience, one of the leaders of the party "Democratic Russia" Gleb Yakunin noted that the document, in his opinion, bears an "overtly discriminatory character." He emphasized that the law, which was developed by the Duma Committee on Relations with Public Associations and Religious Organizations which is controlled by a fraction of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, "actually is intended to restore the soviet religious policy." Yakunin considers that the document contradicts the constitutional principle of the equality before law of all religious associations.

CHARITY WORK ADDED TO LIST OF BANS ON RELIGIOUS GROUPS
The St. Petersburg Times

June 24, 1997

MOSCOW - The State Duma passed an even more restrictive version of a much-criticized bill on religious organizations Monday, adding private charity to a list of activities that would be forbidden to minority and foreign religious groups.

The bill, "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations," swiftly passed on the third and final reading by a 300-8 vote. It now goes to the upper chamber, the Federation Council, where it is expected to pass easily. President Boris Yeltsin has not indicated whether he will sign the bill.

The measure, sought by the Russian Orthodox Church, would protect Russia's traditional religions and discriminate against religious groups that have existed in Russia for less than 15 years. Such groups would not be allowed to own property, worship in public, publish literature or conduct educational activities.

Foreign missionaries and other "professional" religious activists could work in Russia only under the auspices of a registered Russian religious organization.

(posted 30 June 1997)

RUSSIAN LOWER HOUSE BACKS CURBS ON RELIGIOUS SECTS

MOSCOW, June 23 (Reuter) - Russia's lower house of parliament, dominated by communists, on Monday approved a bill on religious association and freedom of conscience condemned by human rights activists as discriminatory.

The bill, which has been welcomed by the Russian Orthodox Church, says only confessions that have operated in Russia for at least 15 years can set up new religious organisations. It also imposes new curbs on religious activity by foreign groups.

Partiarch Alexiy, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, on Monday condemned western missionary activity in Russia, comparing it to the expansion of the NATO defence alliance into eastern Europe, which is virulently opposed by the Kremlin.

Deputies voted 300 for and only eight against the bill on its third reading in the State Duma, the lower house. It now goes to the upper house, the Federation Council, and must also be signed by President Boris Yeltsin.

Critics say it contravenes Russia's constitution and revives Soviet-style censorship of religion. They point out that 15 years ago religious groups were still tightly controlled by the officially atheist Communist state.

Former Orthodox priest Gleb Yakunin, head of the Duma's Committee for the Protection of Freedom of Conscience, said the bill had ``an openly discriminatory character.'' ``It is effectively aimed at resurrecting Soviet religious policy,'' Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

Some mainstream Christian denominations like the Baptists and Seventh-Day Adventists have expressed concern that the anti-sect paranoia of the Orthodox Church, now a close ally of the Russian state, will also work against them. But the Russian Orthodox Church and other traditional faiths like Islam have welcomed the bill, saying it will protect Russia against destructive cults like Japan's notorious doomsday sect Aum Shinri Kyo, which had many followers in the country.

Last week Patriarch Alexiy said the bill would help halt the division of Russians along religious lines. The Orthodox Church has been alarmed by the post-Soviet explosion of religious sects, which have fed on Russians' poverty, spiritual hunger or desire for the new and exotic.

On Monday, meeting other Christian leaders in Austria on the theme of ``conciliation,'' the Patriarch told NTV television: ``Today's proselytism, by foreign sects and missionaries...in Russia, is something of an eastward expansion and you may perhaps draw parallels with NATO's expansion to the East.'' A possible meeting in Austria between the Patriarch and the Pope John Paul II -- which would have been the first ever between the heads of the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches -- was put off due to continuing disputes.

The Russian church has been irritated at a revival of Catholic activity in western parts of the former Soviet Union, a traditional zone of conflict between eastern and western churches. The Patriarch told NTV he did not rule out meeting the Pope. ``But it must be well prepared,'' he added.

DUMA PASSES LAW RESTRICTING RELIGIOUS GROUPS.

RFERL June 24

Also on 23 June, the Duma approved by 300 votes to eight a controversial law on freedom of conscience and religious associations, Russian and Western news agencies reported. The law, strongly backed by the Russian Orthodox Church, includes government-proposed provisions that would make it more difficult for foreign and some minority religious groups--including Catholics and most Protestant denominations--to operate in Russia. Only religious groups that have been active in the country for at least 50 years and have branches in at least half of Russia's 89 regions could be granted the status of "all-Russian organizations" by the government. Religious groups that have been operating in Russia for less than 15 years would be denied the rights of legal entities, including property rights. Defrocked Orthodox priest Gleb Yakunin blasted the law as "blatantly discriminatory" and "oriented toward reinstating Soviet religious policy," Interfax reported.

FATHER POTAPOV ON RELIGION LAW
Voice of America, 26 June 1997

The Russian duma, or lower house of parliament, has overwhelmingly voted to sharply restrict the rights of all religions except for those described as "traditional" in Russia -- that is, Russian Orthodoxy, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism. For background on the significance of this legislation, VOA's Frank Ronalds has talked with Father Victor Potapov, a Russian Orthodox priest who presents religious programming for the VOA Russian Service.

The bill passed by the duma requires that Russian religious organizations, other than the four deemed "traditional," would have to prove that they had been operating in Russia for fifteen years. Fifteen years ago, communist dictator Leonid Brezhnev was ruling the Soviet Union. Moreover, under the proposed new law, the churches or sects not considered "traditional" would only be permitted to meet privately. They could not have their own churches, they could not own property, they could not have their own educational institutions or engage in charitable activities. Father Potapov says that if the bill goes into law, the results would be drastic, indeed.

Potapov: "Fifteen years ago, under Brezhnev, only those four main religions were allowed to register. That means that all of the literally thousands of missions which were established in the past fifteen years are going to be wiped out with the stroke of a pen. The only way this law can be overturned is through a veto by President Yeltsin."

In actual fact, Father Potapov says, not only Catholic and Protestant denominations would be affected, but even Russian Orthodox churches which have broken with the Moscow patriarchate would be cut off as well. He points out that many Orthodox believers have left the official church because it was closely identified with the communist regime in the past. He says that Patriarch Alexy has come out in support of the legislation because the Moscow patriarchate finds itself unpopular and unable to compete effectively.

Potapov: "First of all, most of the top bishops of the Moscow patriarchate are people who were placed in their seats of power in the so-called "good old days," when the KGB and the Council for Religious Affairs, which was an arm of the soviet government, made sure that bishops were chosen from among the clergy who could be easily controlled. and these same bishops are still controlling the church. They were functionaries of the communist party. And they want to hold on to their places.

The Moscow patriarchate was closely identified with the tsarist regime even before the Bolshevik revolution, which caused the so-called "Old Believers" to break with Moscow over three hundred years ago. There were large numbers of Catholics and Baptists beginning in the nineteenth century and many evangelical faiths have been active for decades. However, Father Potapov says, the Moscow patriarchate has been especially concerned over the increased help that other Christian sects have received from their co-religionists since the fall of communism in 1991.

Potapov: The vast majority of Catholics and Protestants in Russia of course welcome foreign missionaries, and welcome foreign help, because the economy of Russia is shot and these people really can't exist without the help of people of faith in the West.

Father Potapov hopes and expects that Russian President Boris Yeltsin will veto the legislation, on the grounds that it violates the constitutional guarantee that all religions "shall be equal before the law." Judging by the vote in the duma, however, it appears that parliament has enough votes to override his veto.

Source: Voice of America
26 June 1997 .

Additional reports from Washington Postand Globe and Mail

(posted 24-30 June )

Variety of reportage about religion law

News coverage of the law passed by the Russian State Duma to replace the 1990 law on religious confessions has contained various views, opinions, and interpretations about it.

DUMA GUARDS NATIVE FAITHS
by Andrei Zolotov
St. Petersburg Times, 23-29 June 1997

MOSCOW - The State Duma voted overwhelmingly Wednesday in favor of religious legislation which would protect Russia's traditional faiths and severely restrict the activities of minority religious groups and missionaries.

Critics say the bill is a gross violation of the constitutional guarantee of freedom of conscience, but supporters, including the Russian Orthodox Church, say it will prevent division of Russia along religious lines and protect Russians against destructive cults.

As the chancellor of the Russian Orthodox Church and Russia's chief imam and rabbi looked on approvingly from the government box, the Duma voted 337-5 to advance the bill to second reading.

The bill, "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations," dramatically reverses liberal legislation adopted in 1990. It is expected to pass on third reading as early as Friday and then face smooth sailing in the Federation Council, the upper house. President Boris Yeltsin has not indicated whether he would sign it.

The lower house of Parliament ignored requests by the major Russian Protestant denominations - Baptists, Pentecostals and Seventh Day Adventists - to delay the vote and went ahead with a draft that was prepared secretly and ignored a previous version approved by representatives of religious groups.

The proposal would distinguish between "religious organizations," that would possess full legal rights, and "religious groups," that would have to wait 15 years before applying to become organizations. In the meantime, they could not own property, publish literature or worship in public places.

Other news reports:

ITAR-TASS
LA Times, Washington Post Service
Ecumenical News International
International News Electronic Telegraph
Christian Science Monitor

New law restricts new religious groups

STRUGGLE WITH HERESY UNITED DUMA AND GOVERNMENT
by Evgeny Yuriev

Segodnia, 19 June 1997

Russians are protected from destructive cults

The relations between the Duma and the government recently remind one more and more of attempts to make contact with representatives of alien worlds or the disputes of the apostles with the king of darkness. It seems that the interlocutors live in different dimensions, think in different categories, or simply are unable to understand one another. Sometimes, however, in these quarrels between representatives of different worlds a ray of light descends and they suddenly begin to talk in a language they both understand, evincing a readiness for joint actions.

Such a thing happened yesterday in the discussion in the Duma of the law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Association." It did not evoked the usual disagreements with the government but the members of the Duma unanimously approved the government's amendments that toughened the law. The representatives of the legislative and executive branches, who constantly are at war among themselves finally, managed to find a common enemy, in the struggle against whom they are prepared to be united. By their joint efforts the government and the Duma intend to eradicate religious heresy from the country.

It seems that heretics are going to have a tough time. According to the law that was adopted all religious organization have until 31 December 1998 to acquire reregistration with the government. Liquidation awaits those who do not do so. The conditions for reregistration do not provide any opportunities for legalization for the adherents of the exotic religious teachings and new sects which are finding fertile soil in Russia for their activity. In order to attain all-Russia status, which is conferred by governmental decision, a religious organization must show that it has been operating in the country a minimum of fifty [sic] years and has local organizations in at least half of the regions and republics of the Russian Federation. A local religious organization must present an application to an office of the local administration showing that it has existed within the given territory at least fifteen years. It is clear that fifteen years ago adherents of nontraditional religious teachings were able to exist only underground and state agencies gave to them no documents. In the course of reregistration it is also required that religious groups present to the offices of justice information about their bases of belief and the practices that correspond with them, including the history of the origins of the belief system and of the given group, the forms and methods of their activity, their attitude toward marriage and the family and toward training, the distinctives of the attitudes toward the health of adherents of the given religion, and the restrictions imposed by their doctrines on members and clergy of the group with regard to their civil rights and obligations.

The law contains an extremely broad list of reasons for refusal of registration and prohibition of a religious organization. Such reasons could include disruption of public security and order, organization of armed units, compulsory dissolution of the family, danger to the morality and health of citizens, including the use of narcotics and consciousness-altering substances in religious practices or hypnosis, as well as the performance of lewd and other illegal actions. Religious organizations are forbidden, under threat of dissolution, to influence their members and adherents to commit suicide or refuse medical aid for religious reasons as well as to compel them to donate their property to the organization.

After the adoption of the law foreign preachers will go into decline. They can engage in preaching activity in Russia only on invitation from registered Russian religious organizations.

According to Viktor Zorkaltsev, president of the Duma committee on affairs of public associations and religious organizations, this law will promote the preservation of the religious traditions in Russia and will defend the country from the expansion of pseudoreligious organizations and destructive cults, which now are "blooming like double flowers" while their "tearing of the fabric of society has reached a critical point."

19/06/1997, Segodnia

Full Russian text (requires KOI-8): borba s eresiu splotila dumu i pravitelstvo

(posted 19 June)

State duma approves new religion law

The Russian State Duma on 18 June adopted nearly unanimously (only 5 negative votes) on first reading the draft of a law that is variously described as an amendment of or a replacement of the current Russian law on religious confessions. Actually the text of the law itself states that it replaces in its entirety the 1990 law, but several articles simply reproduce 1990 articles. The following is a summary of the provisions of the law. While the law affirms complete separation of church and state and equal liberties for all religious opinions, including nonbelief, it does specify some religions by name as having a more prominent historical place in Russia. Further, it distinguishes between religious congregations, providing full rights of juridical persons for some, which are called religious organizations, and denying such rights to other, called religious, or prayer, groups. To become a religious organization, a religion must be certified by the state as having existed in Russia for at least fifteen years. The law does not impose specific restrictions on unregistered religious (prayer)groups beyond the requirement that they give formal notification to local governments of their existence and it gives to them specifically broad rights to conduct religious activities.

The law will not take effect unless President Yeltsin signs it. It also must be passed again by the State Duma and also by the Federal Council, both of which actions are virtually assured.

The preamble states a premise upon which the provisions of the law is based: "Respecting Orthodoxy as an inseparable part of the all-Russian historical, spiritual and cultural heritage, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and other religions and local beliefs traditionally existing in the Russian Federation; . . ."

Article 2, section 2 stipulates the primacy of federal law over laws of regions and republics (subjects). " If acts adopted by subjects of the Russian Federation on questions of the protection of the right to freedom of conscience and freedom of creed, or on questions of the activities of religious associations, contradict this federal law, this federal law is to prevail."

Article 3 affirms the freedom of conscience and specifies a variety of ways in which full and equal religious freedom for all citizens is legally recognized.

Article 4 establishes the principle and practice of separation of church and state, specifically prohibiting the establishment of any religion.

Article 5 provides for the legal practice of religious education. It also provides the possibility for extracurricular religious education in public schools.

Chapter 2, beginning with Article 6, deals with religious associations, of which there are two kinds recognized: prayer groups and religious organizations. The former are unregistered. Religious organizations gain legal recognition as juridical persons. They can be purely local congregations of at least ten persons, or they can be regional or national religious organizations. To be recognized as a religious organization, the state must certify that the group has existed in Russia for at least fifteen years. The law creates a new category of religious organization that comprises at least 100,000 members, calling it an all-Russian religious organization.

Article 11 assigns the authority for legal registration of a religious organization to the departments of justice at various state levels. This article also recognizes the possibility for a religious organization's highest authority to be located outside of Russia, and in such a case requires that certain information be filed with the Russian ministry of justice.

Article 12 states the conditions that disqualify an applicant from receiving registration, including "if the aims and activity of a religious organization are linked with the infringement of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and of current laws, with references to specific articles and laws; the non-recognition of an organization as religious; when the charter and other representative documents do not conform with the demands of laws or when the information contained therein is inauthentic; the presence of a previously registered organization of the same name in the single state register of legal personalities ; when a founding member (members) is not legally competent."

Article 13 addresses the thorny issue of foreign religious organizations. Such organizations are permitted to have representation within Russia if "a Russian religious organization presents a petition to the registering body indicating the purposes for the activity of foreign representatives of a religious organization, . . ." Other documentary information also is required.

Article 14 deals with the procedures for liquidation of a religious organization, by either its members or the state.

Chapter 3, beginning with Article 15, deals with the rights or religious organizations. These include the rights to conduct a variety of activities associated with the religion, provided that there is no infringement of Russian legality. Permitted activities include commercial, charitable, and educational institutions, such as were either limited or fully prohibited in the USSR.

It is noteworthy that the draft of the law does not say anything about a state agency specifically for religious affairs, either to create one (as existed in soviet times) or to prohibit one (as the current law does).

(summary by PDS, from full translation of draft provided by Keston News Service)

(posted 19 June 1997)

Hostility against Jews in Russia

ANTISEMITISM THRIVES IN RUSSIA, REPORT SAYS
Boston Globe, 11 June 1997
by Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Surviving the collapse of the Soviet Union, anti-Semitism is widespread in Russia and other former Soviet republics and has strong support in the Russian Orthodox Church, the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews says. It is the political language of the communists and fascists who are opposed to reform and denounce Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin as a Jew. And while Yeltsin is ``no hard-core anti-Semite,'' he has pandered to nationalists, the council said in a 254-page report being released today.

The spread of free speech in much of the former Soviet Union has resulted in widespread production and distribution of anti-Semitic publications, sometimes by government agencies and the Russian Orthodox Church, the report said. While most of the 15 former republics have laws that make acts and expressions of hatred a crime, there is little prosecution. ``Local authorities, including police and municipal officials, often are blatantly anti-Semitic,'' the report said.

The Union of Councils, which played a leading role in promoting the emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union, is a private organization with offices in Washington and Highland Park, Ill., and with bureaus in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Georgia, and Latvia. With emigration of Jews in decline - from a high of more than 213,000 in 1990 to more than 82,000 last year, the Jewish population of the 15 former republics is nearly 1.4 million. This includes 635,000 in Russia and 500,000 in Ukraine. Jews are accused of being responsible for communism's failure, of stealing the nation's wealth and of defiling the purity of the nations of the former Soviet Union, the report said. At the grass roots, Jews are denounced as Christ-killers.

The Russian Orthodox Church, described in the report as historically anti-Semitic, has supported Yeltsin but keeps its other foot planted in the anti-Semitic coalition of communists and fascists. While younger church leaders work to protect the poor and elderly, a researcher has found that many among the clergy still see Jews as enemies of Christianity, the report said. Attacks against Jews from within the church are seldom denounced and anti-Semitism thrives among the clergy, it said. ``The threat of anti-Semitism in the post-Soviet states is greater than it has been at any time in the last decade,'' said Yosef I. Abramowitz and Micah H. Naftalin, the president and national director, respectively, of the Union of Councils. The US State Department produces outstanding rhetoric but responds weakly to anti-Semitism, in part because of US trade interests, the report said.

(posted 30 June 1997)

"Real Orthodox Church" resists Moscow patriarchate

RUSSIAN BISHOP REBEL AMONG REBELS AGAINST ORTHODOXY

By Adam Tanner

June 4, 1997, Reuter

SUZDAL, Russia, June 4 (Reuter) - From a garret above a picturesque church in the centre of the ancient country town of Suzdal, Bishop Valentin commands a rebel empire, vigorously challenging the authority of the Moscow-based Orthodox Church.

``The Moscow Patriarchate is not involved in the rebirth of Russia and Orthodoxy. They just want to open up businesses, sell alcohol, trade oil, and deal in other items,'' said Valentin, who has a greying beard and wears a long black robe. . . .

Remainder of the article: Bishop Valentin

Religious education in schools

POSSIBILITY OF INTRODUCING PROGRAM OF FUNDAMENTALS OF ORTHODOXY INTO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISCUSSED.

Belarus: More than 250 representatives of the clergy, teachers, and artists from Belarus, Russia, and Lithuania participated in the fourth Saint Evfrosiny Pedagogical Readings on 27-29 May in Minsk. This year the readings were devoted to the topic: "The Religious, Moral and Cultural Significance of Orthodoxy in the Renewal of Education." Participants in the work of the conference included Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Slutsk, Minister of Education of Belarus Vasily Strazhev, Hegumen Ioann Ekonomtsev (rector of the St. John the Divine Russian Orthodox University), and Ivan Pashkevich, assistant to the chief of staff of the president. Metropolitan Filaret called in his address for the participants to facilitate the introduction into the school curriculum of classes in which the fundamentals of Orthodoxy and its history would be explained. His appeal was supported by Minister of Education Vasily Strazhe, who emphasized that for the whole Christian world religious education was concentrated in the family, school, and church, and he expressed the hope that possibly Belarus would become the first state among the former soviet republics where religious and secular education would be united. Speaking for the presidential administration Ivan Pashkevich promosied the full support for the cooperation of the Orthodox church and the educational system. However, he noted, there still remains much to be done in the area of legislation, since the law that was adopted earlier still prohibits compulsory religious instruction of pupils.

Full Russian text (requires KOI-8): Na sviato-evfrosinevskikh chteniakh

(posted 6 June)

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