RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS

Devotees of Krishna in Moscow criticized

MEMBER OF PUBLIC CHAMBER COMPLAINS ABOUT KRISHNAITES TO PROSECUTOR GENERAL

Interfax-Religiia, 25 August 2015


A member of the Commission for Support of Family and Maternity of the Public Chamber of the Russian federation, Yulia Zimova, sent a letter to the office of the prosecutor general with a request to check up on the International Society of Krishna Consciousness for evidence of violation of the rights of children.

 

During meetings of the Krishnaites, children have to breathe the aroma of sweet-smelling sticks and also to dance without clothing. In addition, among the adherents of the organization, including minors, strict vegetarian diets are practiced, Yu. Zimova declared, whose words were quoted on Tuesday in the newspaper Izvestia.

 

In his turn, the head of the council of the Society of Krishna Consciousness of Nizhny Novgorod, Andrei Shkolnikov, rebutted these statements.

 

"Nudity is forbidden in our society. The cult is ancient and our traditions are old. Nobody is isolated from society; it is another question that the members are diverse, with their own interpretations, and they may even be oddballs. But we do not have such a person in Nizhny Novgorod. There are no diets. We simply all are vegetarians and therefore the children are also, but if in 7 to 9 years (when a child is completely conscious) they ask for meat, nobody will refuse them," he noted. (tr. by PDS, posted 26 August 2015)


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