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Setback for Anti-Missionary Law:
Ministry of Justice replaces people who conducted incompetent anti-missionary policy against non-Orthodox
19 February
2010
The uproar evoked by a series
of initiatives by the Ministry
of Justice of RF in the
religious sphere roiled society
and roused up against the
ministry many believers and
defenders of freedom of
conscience in Russia and abroad.
Since Alexander Konovalov's
assumption of the post of
minister in 2008, radical
sect-fighters have been
appointed as the chief experts
on religion in the Ministry of
Justice, intimidating
investigations of religious
associations have begun, and in
October 2009, the Ministry of
Justice proposed a draft law
harshly restricting missionary
activity in Russia. All of this
has sharply undermined the
confidence of believers in the
authorities in general, and they
have begun talking about the
onset of new persecution.
Meanwhile, the situation had
already flared up to the limit,
and at the beginning of 2010, it
became known that key figures
responsible for the incompetent
policy with respect to believers
had been dismissed from the
Ministry of Justice. These were
a deputy minister, Aleksei
Velichko, and the head of the
Department on Noncommercial
Organizations, which includes
work with religious
associations, Sergei Milushkin.
The press service of the
Ministry of Justice confirmed
that this is indeed so; the
odious figures do not work in
the Ministry of Justice any
longer.
Instead of
Velichko, on January 14, 2010,
by order of Russian President D.
Medvedev, Alexander Fedorov was
named First Deputy Minister of
Justice; previously he had
served as deputy head of the
Federal Service for Drug Control
of Russia.
From the
moment of his appointment in
June 2008, Velichko was
authorized to oversee
noncommercial organizations,
since they were moved out of the
purview of the Federal
Registration Service to be
immediately under the Ministry
of Justice. Previously, he
worked as deputy director of the
administration of state
registration of rights to
immoveable property of the
Federal Registration Service;
and since 2006, he was the
assistant to Alexander
Konovalov, who then was the
presidential envoy for the Volga
federal district. Aleksei
Velichko naturally complemented
his director, Alexander
Konovalov, since Velichko is the
author of books about the
symphony of authorities in
Byzantium and Russia. Almost
immediately after the "Byzantine
party" arrived at the ministry,
it began to construct the ideal
of symphony of church and
secular authorities in the way
that it understands it.
Aleksei Velichko began
conducting a policy of putting
pressure on and intimidating
religious associations,
especially non-Orthodox ones. In
October 2008, the Ministry of
Justice of RF first frightened
believers when it published a
list of 50 religious
associations that were
candidates for liquidation.
Among them were Muslim, Jewish,
Buddhist, Protestant, and
alternative Orthodox
associations. Many of the
associations named by the
Ministry of Justice had
submitted accounts routinely
and, thus, the clumsy step of
the ministry was seen by all as
some kind of signal.
It
was Aleksei Velichko who was the
patron of the sect-fighters led
by Dvorkin, who with his support
(and the support of the
minister) were appointed in the
spring of 2009 to the Council
for Conducting State Religious
Studies Expert Analysis of the
Ministry of Justice; and
Alexander Dvorkin, who is well
known for his scurrilous
articles and pronouncements
against all non-Orthodox groups
as "sectarians," became the
chairman of this council.
Against the sect-fighters and in
defense of freedom of conscience
there has been conducted an
action labeled "No to
Inquisitors!," which has
collected 13,000 signatures of
ordinary believers, church
leaders, and secular scholars.
Velichko himself, in an
interview with "Rossiiskaia
gazeta," had to justify Dvorkin
by saying that "inquisitorial"
policies have not been conducted
in the ministry. However the
sect-fighters have so far
discredited the Ministry of
Justice and the Russian
authorities. Exploiting
their status as members of the
council within the Ministry of
Justice, they have made
statements in the press and
turned law enforcement agencies
loose upon separate churches in
the regions (especially active
in this are Dvorkin and a member
of Dvorkin's council, the
sect-fighter Kuzmin from
Saratov). Attempts to open a
case against Kuzmin for
incitement of inter-religious
strife have so far been
unsuccessful. The Protestant
churches of Saratov have turned
to another council created
within the Ministry of Justice
as an alternative to the
infamous sect-fighting council,
the Council for Conducting
Expert Analysis of Religious
Literature with Regard to the
Subject of Extremism. The
churches are demanding the
conduct of an expert analysis of
Kuzmin's publications to see
whether they contain signs of
incitement of inter-religious
hostility. Alarmed believers
have filed suits against
sect-fighters who are disciples
of Dvorkin in many regions of
Russia. Councils for Religious
Studies Expert Analysis in the
departments of justice in the
provinces have begun to be
headed either by overt
sect-fighters or directly by
Orthodox clergy (as in the
Rostov province). The impression
has been created that the
strained religious situation has
been created under the patronage
of the departments of justice.
Under the leadership of
Velichko, the Ministry of
Justice has continued to work on
the draft law for control of
missionary activity. Dvorkin and
another Orthodox activist and
Islamic scholar Roman Silantiev,
a member of Dvorkin's council,
also participated in the
development of the draft. The
draft, which was posted on the
web site of the Ministry of
Justice on October 12, 2009,
evoked a squall of letters and
appeals from churches sent to
President Medvedev with the
demand not to permit the country
to revert to the repressions of
Soviet times with respect to all
those who evangelize. The draft
law obliges each believer who
evangelizes to have in his
possession a document from a
registered religious
association, and members of a
religious group who act without
notification of the authorities
are forbidden to evangelize. As
a result, the draft was removed
from the Ministry of Justice's
site. The promotion of the draft
law in round table sessions in
the State Duma and at other
events was undertaken by the
head of the Department on
Noncommercial Organizations,
Milushkin, who insisted on its
necessity.
There is no
doubt that one should not
entertain any illusions that
after the departure of the
discredited figure who conducted
the incompetent policy the
Ministry of Justice will abandon
the attempt to construct a
"symphony of authorities" -- the
Russian Orthodox Church and the
state. Russian Minister of
Justice Alexander Konovalov, a
deeply Orthodox person with
theological education, is an
advocate of the original
neo-Byzantinism. However, the
scandalous dismissals and the
discrediting in the eyes of
believers of the capacity of the
government and departments of
justice to protect the
principles of freedom of
conscience may force higher
bureaucrats to be more
conscientious and not so
arrogant in a country of
flourishing religious diversity
such as Russia. Statements,
letters, protests, and actions
against the inquisitors are
slowly but surely having their
effect.
Roman Lunkin
Press-Secretary of the SCLJ
Director of the Institute for
Religion and Law
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