Draft Federal Law on Military Chaplains (prepared inside the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in October 2009)

December 2, 2009

The draft presents an attempt for the first time to regulate the activity of military chaplains in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and other national security departments on a legislative level. At present, the military chaplains of the Russian Orthodox Church perform religious services in the Armed Forces without due legal framework; hence, completely unregulated.

The most serious flaw of this draft is that it stipulates exclusively for Orthodox chaplains to serve in the Armed Forces, while other religious confessions are left out. Such an openly discriminating approach might seriously affect not only the rights of the religious believers serving in the army, but also separate the army from within based on religious convictions.