RUSSIA BANS ACTIVITY OF UKRAINIAN CHURCHES IN CRIMEA WITHOUT REREGISTRATION BEGINNING IN MARCH
Institute of Religious Liberty, 25 February 2015
Russian authorities have demanded of Ukrainian churches and religious organizations in Crimea that they submit documents for reregistration in accordance with legislation of the Russian federation before 1 March 2015.
Failure to fulfill this condition will entail a prohibition on religious activity of such legal entities and their subsequent liquidation, the Institute of Religious Liberty reports.
This requirement is contained in article 19 of the federal law of RF of 30 November 1994, with recent amendments according to the federal law of RF of 31 December 2014:
"Legal entities that have not submitted their founding documents in accordance with the legislation of the Russian federation and have not submitted an application for entering information about themselves into the unified state register of legal entities and have not acquired the status of an affiliate (representation) of a foreign legal entity within the period established by the current article. . . , upon the expiration of that period do not have the right to conduct activity on the territory of the Russian federation . . . and are subject to liquidation," the federal law of the RF says.
Representatives of the occupying authority say that the process of the reregistration of religious organizations in Crimea "is going very difficultly." This was stated in Simferopol at an enlarged session of the Public Chamber of the RF Commission for Harmonization of Interethnic and Interconfessional Relations by the head of the Department for Affairs of Religions and National-Cultural Communities of the Ministry of Culture of the Crimea, Alexander Selevko.
He said that it had been planned to complete the transfer of Crimean religious communities into the Russian legal field by 31 December 2014. However the deadline had to be extended to 1 March 2015. But this measure has not substantially changed the situation.
According to the deputy of the authorized envoy of the president of the RF in Crimea, Vladimir Bobrovskii, nine communities have been reregistered in the region. Another 73 are at the stage of registration. Only two religious organizations have registered their charters in Moscow.
We recall that at the beginning of 2014, 1409 religious organizations with the status of legal entity were operating. Another approximately 674 religious communities, mainly Crimean Tatar organizations, were functioning without registration. In the past 25 years, the number of religious communities in Crimea increased from 47 to 2083.
Russian legislation substantially restricts the rights of believers and religious organizations in comparison with the legislation of Ukraine.
In the opinion of experts of the Institute of Religious Liberty, being deprived of the status of legal entity, in the first place, threatens the property rights of Ukrainian religious communities, which will not be able to be in control of their own church buildings, houses of worship, mosques, and other buildings. The demand for reregistration is aimed at forcing Ukrainian priests and believers to accept Russian citizenship and to come under the jurisdiction of Russian religious centers and to submit completely to the legislation of the RF.
In addition, only registered religious organizations may conduct religious rituals in hospitals, children's homes, homes for the elderly, and prisons; invite foreign citizens for work; open bank accounts for receiving contributions; acquire and lease premises for worship services and other property; produce and distribute literature, printed, audio, and video materials; conduct charitable activity; and establish and support international communications and contacts. (tr. by PDS, posted 27 February 2015)
Editorial disclaimer: RRN does
not intend to certify the accuracy of information
presented in articles. RRN simply intends to certify the
accuracy of the English translation of the contents of the
articles as they appeared in news media of countries of
the former USSR.
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/.