No fun for small churches in Putin’s Russia

FOREF Editorial:

One of the most controversial figures – well known to the hundreds of religious minority groups in Eastern Europe – Alexander Dvorkin has been appointed Chairman of the Justice Department’s “Commission for the Implementation of State Expertise on Religious Science”.

Furthermore. Dvorkin has also been elected vice-president of the "European Federation of Research Centers for Information about Sects" (FECRIS). His range of attack includes not just Jehovah Witnesses, Scientology, the Hare Krishna community, Falun Gong or the Unification Church.  Alexander Dvorkin has been known to fight Christian groups, such as the Baptists, Pentecostals and many other Christian churches which have been growing impressively during the last two decades in the post communist era.

Russian Minister of Justice Alexander Konovalov, who is said to be an old friend of Dvorkin,  has been giving a clear message to the world by appointing him to this post: Russia is – at least for the coming years – not attempting to comply with the current OSCE standards of human rights & tolerance. Also the in the Western society hailed separation between church and  state has become a farce in Putin’s Russia. The Russian Orthodox Church is calling the shots now and the promotion of religious diversity has not been part of her mission statement. 

The signals Konovalov is trying to convey by personally visiting the annual FECRIS conference (May 16-17) in St. Petersburg behind closed doors and under the “protection” FSB agents (former KGB) around the building and  throughout the entire meeting are obvious. It makes   the non orthodox believers throughout the country shiver. No wonder, that already  numerous protests against the Justice Department’s new agency and Dvorkin’s appointment have taken place. However, critique on the government has not been very healthy, even in the post-communist Russia. Today we witness reports on CNN and BBC that demonstrations critical of Putin/Medvedev have been stopped in Moscow by the police and the FSB. The leaders have simply been taken off the streets and put to jail. Even worse, according to RWB (Reporters Without Borders) at least 8 government-critical journalists have been killed over the recent years, the most prominent being Anna Politkowskaja.

It is somehow bizarre, that in St. Petersburg  France and Belgium have been quoted as great examples on dealing with the so called “sects” (France finances 80% of the FECRIS budget). George Fenech, the head of MIViLUDES, the French anti-sect government agency has just been calling for a new blacklist on “sects”. In Belgium they still have a blacklist on religious minority groups. As long as there are Western governments to sanction institutionalized religious discrimintion, neither the Council of Europe, nor the OSCE will have the moral authority to teach Putin or the Chinese effectively on the most basic human right, which is religious freedom.

Peter Zoehrer
FOREF Europe