MENU
Documenting
war crimes in Ukraine

The Tribunal for Putin (T4P) global initiative was set up in response to the all-out war launched by Russia against Ukraine in February 2022.

Similar articles

Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia: once rehabilitated, now again persecutedRussia sentences poet Aleksandr Byvshev to 7 years for writing of its war crimes in Ukraine Russia's armed terror against independent Crimean Tatar Muslim community hits resistance Nothing is sacredAt a crossroadsArmed searches and surreal charges against Crimean Tatar Imam for leading prayers in Russian-occupied Crimea Arm Ukraine! An Open Letter From Human Rights Defenders To The Governments And Civil Societies Of Free And Democratic Nations”I’m no criminal’. Ukrainian artist sentenced to 15 years for protesting Russia's war against Ukraine refuses to wear prison uniform New armed terror against independent religious community in Russian-occupied Crimea Why banning the Russian-affiliated Ukrainian Orthodox Church “would create problems, not remove them”Imprisoned Russian poet Alexander Byvshev charged with ‘calls to terrorism’ for poem condemning Russia’s war against UkraineRussia abducts two priests from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in occupied Donetsk Yevhen Zakharov shortlisted for the Václav Havel Prize 2023Viktoriia Ivlieva: ‘I would never defend Russia’Crimean Tatar human rights defender charged with 'discrediting' the Russian invaders on Facebook Ukrainian Jehovah’s Witness faces 10-year sentence for studying the Bible in Russian-occupied Crimea Constitution of Ukraine: social contract in the trials of warWhat did the media team of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group deal with in 2022?Court sentences conscientious objector to a year in jailUkraine’s penitentiary institutions and the war

Rights group: Russian religious freedom in danger

26.01.2010    source: AP
Nataliya Vasilyeva

Religious freedoms are being rapidly curtailed throughout Russia as the Orthodox Church seeks to boost its dominance, human rights activists warned on Monday.

In its annual report on religions freedoms, the independent Moscow-based Liberty of Conscience Institute expressed concern that growing state support for the Russian Orthodox Church is coming at the expense of minority denominations.

President Dmitry Medvedev's initiative to permanently assign Orthodox priests to army units and introduce religious education classes at state schools could prove detrimental to the idea of Russia as a secular state, the report said.

Those moves breach the constitution and are aimed at "fostering loyalty to the regime," Sergei Mozgovoi, co-chair of the institute's board, told reporters.

Attaching chaplains to army units in particular could incite abuse toward non-Christian conscripts, he said.

The Russian Orthodox Church withered under eight decades of Soviet rule, but has enjoyed a resurgence over the past two decades. The church has more than 100 million followers in Russia and millions more elsewhere. Polls show only about 5 percent of Russians are strict followers, however.

Government and religion are officially separated under Russia's post-Soviet constitution, but the Liberty of Conscience Institute says ties between state and church have become "symbiotic."

In a move criticized by the report's authors, the government is giving vigorous backing to a law that could see the church reclaim valuable property confisciated by Soviet authorities.

Sergei Buryanov, who jointly chairs the institute, accused Russian authorities of using legislation designed to fight extremism to stifle dissent.

Russia is witnessing "a large-scale and systematic persecution" of religious minorities that mainly targets Muslims, he said.

Recent moves against the Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia has also alarmed religious freedoms activists.

Russia's highest court last month upheld a ruling halting the activities of a regional branch of Jehovah's Witnesses and banning dozens of its publications. That followed a 2004 ruling by the Moscow City Court prohibiting a branch in the Russian capital from engaging in religious activity.

The institute said the crackdown on religious freedoms has become so fierce that there may soon be no religious minorities in Russia.

 Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 Share this