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  • F18News: Russia - 56 major religious organisations to be shut down?

    FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
    http://www.forum18.org/

    The right to believe, to worship and witness
    The right to change one's belief or religion
    The right to join together and express one's belief

    ========================================== ======
    Wednesday 12 November 2008
    RUSSIA: 56 MAJOR RELIGIOUS ORGANISATIONS TO BE SHUT DOWN?

    Following the surprise mid-October publication of a list of 56 centralised
    religious organisations scheduled for liquidation, apparently for not
    submitting correct accounts, Russia's Justice Ministry has refused to
    reveal what stage any plans for liquidation are at and precisely why the 56
    organisations are on the list. Old Believer, Armenian Apostolic, Catholic,
    Protestant, Nestorian, Muslim and Buddhist organisations are among those
    listed. None of 15 of the named organisations Forum 18 News Service spoke
    to had received any warning from the Ministry before the list's
    publication. Two organisations were found by Forum 18 to be defunct. None
    of the 56 listed organisations are from the Moscow Patriarchate, even
    though 309 of 562 centralised religious organisations belong to it.
    Vladimir Ryakhovsky of the Slavic Centre for Law and Justice claimed to
    Forum 18 that Moscow Patriarchate organisations were told in advance how to
    correct their submissions. Fr Vsevolod Chaplin of the Moscow Patriarchate
    confirmed that the Ministry had made "certain comments" on their
    organisations' accounts, but was unable to say when this was. A Justice
    Ministry official told the Adventist Church: "the aim of the list is 'to
    call religious organisations to discipline'."

    RUSSIA: 56 MAJOR RELIGIOUS ORGANISATIONS TO BE SHUT DOWN?

    By Geraldine Fagan, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>

    A total of 56 major religious organisations spanning confessions broadly
    considered mainstream in Russia are still earmarked for court liquidation
    because the Justice Ministry claims not to have received their accounts,
    Forum 18 News Service has found. Old Believer, Armenian Apostolic,
    Catholic, Protestant, Nestorian, Muslim and Buddhist organisations are
    among those on the list.

    Over half of all centralised religious organisations belong to the Russian
    Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), but none are among the 56. This is
    because they were forewarned by the Ministry, religious rights lawyer
    Vladimir Ryakhovsky of the Moscow-based Slavic Centre for Law and Justice
    claimed to Forum 18.

    Fr Vsevolod Chaplin, vice-chairman of the Patriarchate's Department for
    External Church Relations, confirmed to Forum 18 that the Justice Ministry
    had made "certain comments" regarding the 2007-8 account submissions from
    the Moscow Patriarchate's centralised religious organisations. However, he
    was unable to say when these comments were made or whether they
    were made verbally or in writing, as many organisations in different
    regions were involved.

    "Church institutions often aren't able to employ qualified legal experts
    and they often make mistakes," Fr Vsevolod explained to Forum 18 on 12
    November. "But everything which was said [by the Justice Ministry] was put
    right."

    If Moscow Patriarchate organisations were forewarned and thus were not put
    on the liquidation list, this would represent preferential treatment. It
    would - to Forum 18's knowledge - mark the first clear violation by a
    federal state body of Russia's 1993 constitutional guarantee of equality
    before the law for all religious associations.

    Of 17 organisations on the list contacted by Forum 18, two turned out to
    be defunct. Representatives of the other 15 said thay had not been warned
    verbally or in writing before the Justice Ministry published the list of
    the 56 offending organisations on its website in mid-October. Most
    confirmed bureaucratic slips by themselves or the Ministry, but some were
    sure they had filed accounts in order and on time. Only two of the 17
    turned out to be defunct.

    The Justice Ministry has declined to answer all but Forum 18's basic
    questions. Andrei Sarychev of its Department for the Affairs of Religious
    Organisations directed Forum 18 to the Ministry's press service on 10
    November, where a spokesperson confirmed that liquidation suits are still
    planned as the mid-October list remains on the Ministry website. Asked
    whether any individual warnings were sent to religious organisations before
    the list's publication, the spokesperson said he could not comment, as it
    was not the press service's task to issue warnings, but to "actualise the
    information on the website."

    Referred back to the Department for the Affairs of Religious
    Organisations, Forum 18 was told by its head Tatyana Vaghina on 10 November
    that its representatives are not authorised to comment to the press and had
    already referred Forum 18 to the Ministry's press service. Told the press
    service's response, she said she would liaise with her superiors about
    whether she could comment to Forum 18. By mid-morning on 12 November, her
    superiors were "still thinking about it," she told Forum 18. "There's a
    supposition that more detailed information will be posted on the website."

    Forum 18 has thus been unable to find out from the Justice Ministry what
    stage any plans for liquidation are at, precisely why the 56 organisations
    are on the list and whether Moscow Patriarchate organisations were warned
    separately.

    Quoted by Interfax news agency on 15 October, a Justice Ministry spokesman
    said that the 56 are threatened with liquidation because they "failed to
    submit information and documents prescribed by law to the Justice Ministry
    over a prolonged period."

    As some of the 56 have received written warnings since the list's
    publication, Ryakhovsky, the religious rights lawyer, believes that the
    Justice Ministry no longer intends to file for their liquidation, he told
    Forum 18 on 7 November.

    Vaghina of the Justice Ministry told Viktor Vitko, vice-president of the
    Eurasian Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, that her department
    was not trying to move against the 56 organisations via the courts, but to
    get them to give in their accounts, he told Forum 18 on 29 October: "She
    said the aim of the list is 'to call religious organisations to
    discipline'."

    According to Ryakhovsky, the Justice Ministry compiled a separate,
    internal list of Moscow Patriarchate organisations with accounting errors
    to which individual letters were sent warning what should be put right
    regarding their documentation. "That's why they weren't on the public
    list," he explained to Forum 18. Ryakhovsky did not comment on the source
    of his information.

    July 2008 figures on the Justice Ministry website state that 309 of 562
    centralised religious organisations belong to the Moscow Patriarchate. As
    the list of 56 represents just over a fifth of the remaining organisations,
    statistically some 60 Moscow Patriarchate organisations might be expected
    to be on a list of centralised religious organisations whose accounts are
    irregular in some way.

    Moscow Patriarchate organisations are represented in analogous court
    liquidations on the regional level. In 2003, three of its parishes were
    among 26 religious organisations dissolved in Nizhny Novgorod Region. In
    2007, Moscow Patriarchate parishes were among some 30 religious
    organisations dissolved in Tyumen Region. Most such organisations seem to
    be defunct or indifferent to losing their legal personality status (see
    F18News 10 September 2008
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1185>).

    Ryakhovsky of the Slavic Centre for Law and Justice ascribed the whole
    development partly to a loss of specialists at the Justice Ministry
    following the July 2008 abolition of the Federal Registration Service, and
    partly to the appointment of Aleksandr Konovalov as Justice Minister in May
    2008.

    Konovalov has a strong personal loyalty to the Moscow Patriarchate.
    Previously Presidential Representative to the Volga Federal District before
    becoming Justice Minister, he studied theology at St Tikhon's Orthodox
    University in Moscow. Asked in a September 2006 interview whether state
    representatives could remain equidistant from all religions in the course
    of their work, however, Konovalov told "Foma" Russian Orthodox magazine:
    "Any state official - a person invested with authority and capable of
    influencing people's fates - must remain equidistant, or rather, as distant
    as possible, from personal preferences in his or her public activity."

    Among representatives of the 17 organisations contacted by Forum 18, only
    one suspected foul play by the Justice Ministry. "They know how to lose
    things!" Metropolitan Adrian (Starina) of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
    (Kiev Patriarchate) quipped. He assured Forum 18 that his Bogorodsk Diocese
    had submitted accounts for 2007-08, despite an early November written
    Justice Ministry warning to the contrary. Centred on Noginsk (Moscow
    Region) - known before 1917 as Bogorodsk - the Kiev Patriarchate diocese is
    one of three registered in Russia, "but they're quite weak as we're not
    allowed to develop," according to Metropolitan Adrian. The Kiev
    Patriarchate has fractious relations with the Moscow Patriarchate and is
    not recognised by most other Orthodox Churches (see F18News 25 March 2004
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=287>).

    Despite a current court battle initiated by the local authorities to seize
    14 historical churches in its custody in Suzdal District (Vladimir Region),
    another unrecognised Orthodox jurisdiction at odds with the Moscow
    Patriarchate is not alarmed by its Suzdal Diocese being on the list.
    "Before the list was published we ourselves noticed that we had filled out
    our accounts on old forms, so we resubmitted," Marina Molodinskaya, lawyer
    to the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church, told Forum 18 on 7 November.
    "It's all OK."

    Several of the 17 organisations contacted by Forum 18 have received
    written warnings since the list was published, specifying what action they
    should take to avoid court liquidation. Like the Kiev Patriarchate diocese,
    the branch of the Catholic humanitarian organisation Caritas attached to
    the Catholic Church's Transfiguration Diocese in Novosibirsk has been
    warned to submit accounts by 1 December, its director, Sister Elisabeth
    Jakubowitz, told Forum 18 on 6 November. Caritas did in fact submit its
    accounts for 2007-8 to the local department of justice, as it has always
    done, she said, but under an old name which was formally changed soon after
    submission. Confusion arose due to this name change, she believes: "So much
    fuss from one bureaucratic error - there's nothing in it."

    The Justice Ministry's approach to organisations on the list appears
    inconsistent, however. Most have been told what action they should take,
    either orally or in writing. The Protestant evangelical organisation Youth
    With A Mission also received a Ministry warning letter, "but it wasn't at
    all specific," a representative of the organisation told Forum 18 on 6
    November. As far as he knew, Youth With A Mission had submitted all its
    documentation "on time and in order." While the organisation's lawyers are
    currently looking into the situation he said, "They aren't being very
    helpful at the [Justice] Ministry - just saying that they are going to
    liquidate these organisations."

    Representatives of several other organisations on the list contacted by
    Forum 18 sounded annoyed that they had only learned about it from the
    internet. "There was no warning or letter, nothing," a secretary at the St
    Petersburg-based Lutheran Church of Ingria told Forum 18 on 29 October, and
    insisted that the Church had in fact submitted its accounts. The Ingrian
    Church's Theological Institute also submitted its accounts on time, a
    secretary there told Forum 18 the next day, "and we have the receipts to
    prove it." The Justice Ministry was at fault, she maintained, as it could
    not find the Institute's papers.

    The (Nestorian) Assyrian Church of the East - which has a handful of
    parishes in Russia - found out that it should have submitted certain
    documents only after contacting the Justice Ministry following internet
    news reports of the list of 56, Ruben Aleksanov of its Mar Gewargis (St
    George's) parish in the southern city of Krasnodar told Forum 18 on 6
    November. "Officials could have told us there was something missing when we
    put in the papers," he complained. "They might have warned us."

    Most of the religious organisations Forum 18 contacted, however, appeared
    surprisingly anxious to suggest they had been at fault and/or stressed that
    they did not see any cause for concern. Akhmed Makhmedov, press secretary
    of the Volga Spiritual Directorate of Muslims, told Forum 18 on 5 November
    he was sure his organisation was on the list because of "something to do
    with our accounts" - although he had no idea what. He was confident it
    could be resolved before any possibility of liquidation, even though he
    said similar circumstances had forced the Directorate to defend itself from
    liquidation in Saratov Regional Court some five years ago.

    A spokesman for the southern diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church -
    which has its headquarters in Krasnodar - described its entry on the list
    as "a mistake" and responded "everything's OK" to all Forum 18's further
    questions on 5 November.

    Dulma Shagdarova, who co-chairs the Central Directorate of Buddhists, also
    assured Forum 18 that "everything's OK" on 5 November, explaining that she
    had already sent the Justice Ministry a copy of a document missing from her
    organisation's original submission.

    The Central Conference of the Russian United Methodist Church submitted
    its accounts to the local department of justice in Moscow rather than the
    Ministry, a secretary told Forum 18 on 29 October, "and so they didn't get
    them - it was our mistake." Having resubmitted the documents, she suggested
    the situation would soon be resolved.

    Similarly, Viktor Vitko of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church told Forum 18
    that the Justice Ministry had not received annual accounts from the its
    West Siberian Conference or Central Siberian Mission because they were
    submitted to local justice departments. Tatyana Vaghina of the Justice
    Ministry had assured him that local justice departments had been warned to
    be more vigilant about passing on accounts in future, he said.

    Two of the 17 organisations whose representatives Forum 18 contacted -
    Gospel Charity Pentecostal Mission and an Omsk-based Muslim spiritual
    directorate - turned out to be defunct.

    Fr Yevgeni Chunin, head of administration at the Moscow metropolia of the
    Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church (Belokrinitsa Concord), was unsure why
    two of his Church's dioceses - Novosibirsk and Kazan-Vyatka - were on the
    list: "Of course we handed in the various accounts, but maybe something was
    late," he told Forum 18 on 6 November. "We're not used to all this fiscal
    accounting." Diocesan representatives are currently working to resolve the
    situation, he said.

    Fr Yevgeni was unsurprised at the situation, however. Ever since the
    conclusion of re-registration under the 1997 Religion Law at the end of
    2000, he said, "there's been some kind of cataclysm from time to time
    because they haven't explained some bits of the law to rank-and-file
    religious organisations. You only find out when they call you or there's
    some kind of warning that you've violated this or that, and you think,
    'Lord have mercy! What have we done?' It turns out to be some bit of the
    law you haven't read, and this is what we think this is."

    For the past two years, all religious organisations have had to file
    annual accounts with the Justice Ministry in line with the 2006 so-called
    NGO Law (see F18News 14 November 2006
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=869>). In response to
    sustained lobbying by religious organisations - particularly the Moscow
    Patriarchate - the government markedly simplified the new rules for them in
    April 2007 (see F18News 17 April 2007
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id'3>). The 1997 Religion Law
    also requires religious organisations to inform the Justice Ministry
    annually about the continuation of their activity.

    Ryakhovsky's lawyer colleague at the Slavic Centre for Law and Justice,
    Sergei Chugunov challenges whether failure to file accounts amounts to the
    "frequent and gross violation" of the Constitution or federal law necessary
    for the state to dissolve a religious organisation. It is difficult to say
    what the consequences would be if a centralised religious organisation were
    dissolved, he told Forum 18 on 11 November. "The law doesn't stipulate, and
    so there is no agreement on whether it would mean the liquidation of just
    the centralised religious organisation, or of all the local religious
    organisations belonging to it as well."

    Under the 1997 Religion Law, three local religious organisations which
    have existed for at least 15 years may register as a centralised religious
    organisation, such as a diocese or union. This may then function as an
    umbrella organisation for other - including newer - local organisations
    seeking legal status. (END)

    For a personal commentary by Irina Budkina, editor of the
    <http://www.samstar.ru> Old Believer website, about continuing denial of
    equality to Russia's religious minorities, see F18News 26 May 2005
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=570>.

    For more background, see Forum 18's Russia religious freedom survey at
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_ id=1196>.

    Reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Russia can be
    found at
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?query=&a mp;religion=all&country=10>.

    A printer-friendly map of Russia is available at
    <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpedition s/atlas/index.html?Parent=europe&Rootmap=russi >.
    (END)

    © Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855
    You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
    F18News http://www.forum18.org/

    Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at
    http://www.forum18.org/
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