TV CHANNEL "ZVEZDA" "EXPOSES" SCIENTOLOGISTS AND JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
SOVA Center for News and Analysis, 23 October 2017
On 17 October 2017, a film, "Espionage in the guise of religion," was shown on the television channel "Zvezda" in the program "Conspiracy theory." The creators of the film, using the example of Scientologists and Jehovah's Witnesses, introduced "proof" that "many representatives of religious minorities, essentially sects, are closely associated with intelligence agencies of the U.S.A."
The film is replete with "anti-sectarian" clichés about "psycho-techniques that permit one to take full control of both the will and mind of a person and, as a result, his soul," to seize property from "devotees," to "recruit," and so forth.
Experts used in the film included the "sect scholar" Alexander Dvorkin; Evgeny Spitsyn, an adviser of the rector of Moscow Pedagogical State University; and Larisa Astakhova, the head of the department of religious studies of Kazan Federal University, who "had the courage to conduct honest and objective expert analysis of the vigorous activity of Scientologists," who "in revenge" organized surveillance of her.
As in other similar films, Ukraine was cited as a negative example of the interference of "sects," only according to the creators of this film, Jehovah's Witnesses took an active part in the "events on Maidan."
The creators of the film make recommendations about how to distinguish a "sect" and "how to understand that your preacher may turn out to be a person with the epaulets of another state."
The film concludes with the message that the new American ambassador to Russia is a Mormon, from which it draws the conclusion that the "round-up of our souls is continuing." (tr. by PDS, posted 1 November 2017)
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/.