FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
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 <;
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
< 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
< 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
< 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
< 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
<; Old Believer website, about continuing denial of
equality to Russia’s religious minorities, see F18News 26 May 2005
< e_id=570>.
For more background, see Forum 18’s Russia religious freedom survey at
< id=1196>.
Reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Russia can be
found at
< mp;religion=all&country=10>.
A printer-friendly map of Russia is available at
< s/atlas/index.html?Parent=europe&Rootmap=russi >.
(END)
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