RUSSIAN
M.V.D.:
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ARE ESPECIALLY DANGEROUS FOR CHILDREN AND
YOUTH
by
Alexander Ashurov
Vsia
Pravda, 18
September 2019
The
Jehovah's
Witnesses, which were banned in Russia in 2017, are still
conducting in the
Russian Federation their illegal activity and they are causing
harm to the
physical and psychological health of Russia, Police General
Major Oleg Ilinykh,
the chief of the main directorate for combating extremism of the
MVD [Ministry
of Internal Affairs], explains.
"The
adepts of
the Jehovah's Witnesses often leave their families, transfer
their property and
financial resources to the sect, disrupt social communications,
and commit
serious and especially serious crimes," Ilinykh relates.
A court
in the city
of Karpinsk of Sverdlovsk oblast is considering a criminal case
against the
Jehovist Alexander Prianikov, his friend Venera Dulovaia, and
her daughter.
According to information of the investigation, the technology
student Daria
Dulovaia, who is now 19 years old, along with her mothers and
her friend in the
sect, the 32-year-old preacher Alexander Prianikov, have for a
long time
conducted agitation for the sect in public places of Karpinsk.
Daria has
engaged in drawing into the sect new devotees among local young
students and
high school pupils. Prianikov conducted propaganda of the
teaching of a
forbidden organization both in Sverdlovsk oblast and in
Krasnoyarsk territory,
of which he is a native. The targets of the preaching of the
former factory
electrician, Prianikov, have been representatives of blue collar
workers. The
actions were committed by the suspects after the ban on the
Jehovah's
Witnesses, and therefore Prianikov and the Dulovaia mother and
daughter were charged
on the basis of article 282.2 (Arranging the activity of an
extremist
organization and participating in it).
In
early September
in Khabarovsk, the elder of the local Jehovah's Witnesses,
Valery Moskalenko,
who works as an assistant engineer, was sentenced to forced
labor. He was found
guilty of conducting a secret prayer meeting of Witnesses in the
Erofei hotel
of Khabarovsk in April 2018. Also during the trial it was
established that
Moskalenko drew his relatives into the sect, specifically his
own sister.
Also
there in
Khabarovsk, an elder of the sect, 80-year-old Maia Karpushkina,
is under a
pledge not to depart her place of residence. As a retired school
teacher,
Karpushkina tried to draw into the sect teachers of local
educational
institutions and students and their parents, and she preached
within her family
circle.
Oleg
Ilinykh pointed
out the danger of promoting the ideology of Jehovah's Witnesses
among children
and youth: "Personnel of the Center for Combating Extremism of
the chief
directorate of the Russian MID for Rostov oblast uncovered the
activity of a
conspiratorial cell of the forbidden religious extremist central
organization
of Jehovah's Witnesses of Rostov-on-Don. The financing was
conducted through
donations from adepts. Instances of drawing minors into the sect
were
established, who were raised to the rank of 'pioneers,' who were
supposed to
conduct propaganda among their peers in educational
institutions. An incident
was exposed of the categorical refusal of parents (who were
devotees of the
extremist organization) to provide urgent medical aid to their
15-year-old
daughter (diagnosed with a rupture spleen), which almost led to
the death of
the minor. Measures taken in a timely manner by the police,
along with
guardianship agencies and the oblast Ministry of Health,
prevented serious
consequences and led to an operation for the child. A criminal
case was opened
against eleven participants for the creation and planning of the
activity of an
extremist organization (parts 1 and 2 of article 282.2 of the CC
RF),"
Ilinykh explained in his article for the MVD magazine "Police of
Russia."
The
principal
subjects in the criminal case regarding the episode Ilinykh
described are
22-year-old Semen Baibak and 32-year-old Ruslan Alyev, who are
elders of the
Rostov Jehovah's Witnesses and who are employed as teachers of
the Chinese
language. Baibak and Alyev exploited their status as teachers to
promote the
teaching of the sect among minors, their friends, and relatives.
"Our
colleagues
from security agencies in Dagestan put an end to the activity of
15 cells of
the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses. The leaders
of the sect were
arrested, who earlier underwent training in foreign centers of
Jehovists and
recruited new members from among residents of the republic,"
Oleg Ilinykh
related.
In this
case, the
40-year-old elder of the sect, Arsen Abdullaev, who worked as a
plumbing and
heating technician, is being detained in a Makhachkala SIZO.
Abdullaev, who was
raised in a family of profoundly believing Muslims, promoted the
teaching of
Jehovah's Witnesses in Dagestan for about 20 years. His spouse,
Suat
Abdullaeva, who was educated as a teacher of arts and crafts, is
also an active
Jehovist and she was brought to accountability as an accomplice.
Also in the
Makhachkala SIZO in this case are the elders Marat Abdulgalimov
(b. 1991),
Maria Karpova (b. 1980) and Anton Dergalev (b. 1985). Dergalev,
who moved to
Dagestan from Piatigorsk with the goal of preaching the teaching
of the sect,
absorbed the ideology of the Jehovah's Witnesses back in
childhood, under the
influence of his mother and grandmother. Investigative
activities in the case
of the Dagestani Witnesses were conducte3d in Makhachkala,
Kaspiisk, Derbent,
and Kizliar.
"The
main problems
in combating the destructive religious cults and sects remain
the latent nature
of their illegal activity and also the fact that the
overwhelming majority of
devotees join these organizations (societies and groups) and
transfer to them
their financial resources and alienate to them their property
exclusively on a
voluntary basis, which often entails the lack of evidence of the
crimes
specified by article 239 of the CC RF (Creation of a
noncommercial organization
that infringes the person and rights of citizens) and article
159 of the CC RF
(Fraud). In addition, even in the event of negative consequences
for health or
major material harm, the adepts do not consider themselves to be
victims and
they do not turn to law enforcement agencies," Oleg Ilinykh sums
up in his
article.
The
chief of the
antiextremism center of the MVD of the RF mentioned the "Kerch
shooter," Vladislav Rosliakov, the son of a female preacher of
the
Jehovah's Witnesses, who became after his crime an example for
emulation in the
internet community among the so-called "Columbiners," disciples
of
school terrorism.
"Considering
the
tragic events occurring on 17 October 2018, when a student of
the Kerch
Polytechnology College made an armed attack on peers and
teachers of the
educational institution, a number of measures are being taken
for exposing and
combating destructive ideology among youth. In April 2019,
personnel of centers
for combating extremism of the Russian MVD for Sverdlovsk oblast
and Smolensk
oblast conducted preventive work with adherents of destructive
ideology who
were born between 2000 and 2005 and who, as students in various
educational
institutions, placed provocative posts on social networks
idealizing and
justifying the events of 20 years ago when on 20 April 1999 two
pupils of the
Columbine school in the U.S.A. conducted a mass shooting of
pupils. As practice
shows, the majority of such persons were introduced to radical
ideas by means
of themed sites on the internet, which, in their turn, began to
actively form
around themselves so-called web groups of likeminded persons who
promoted and
spread destructive ideology. They draw teenagers into closed
groups on social
networks under any pretext (invitation to a 'brotherhood' or 'community,' possible
awards, bonuses,
likes, etc.). As a rule, into their network fall kids who suffer
a lack of
attention within a family circle or have problems in
communication with peers
or fall into difficult life situations."
We
recall that
despite the fact that Jehovah's Witnesses were ruled by the
Russian Supreme
Court to be an extremist organization, and their printed
materials were
included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials even before
the ban of the
organization, the central website of the Witnesses,
jw-russia.org, has not been
blocked by Roskomnadzor. Through it the Jehovah's Witnesses
freely conduct the
propaganda of their teaching in Russia.
It
should also be
recalled that Jehovists forbid their children to befriend peers
whose parents
are not members of the sect, they instill in boys the feeling of
refusing to
defend the motherland with weapons in their hands, and they
cultivate hostility
toward representatives of traditional religions of Russia and
toward the
history of the country. A special danger for children is posed
by the Jehovah's
Witnesses' prohibition of blood transfusion and organ
transplants, because of
which seriously ill children of Jehovists are doomed by the sect
to death.
Abroad, particularly in Finland and Australia, elders of
Jehovah's Witnesses
have been taken to court on charges of abuse of minor adepts and
of pedophilia.
(tr. by PDS, posted 18 September 2019)
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