RUSSIA: Religious issues and persecution – Bimonthly Digest April 16-30
27.04.2024 – A case on insulting the feelings of believers has been initiated in Ulyanovsk
Sova – On April 26, 2024, the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Ulyanovsk region reported on the initiation of a criminal case under Part 1 of Art. 148 of the Criminal Code (insulting the religious feelings of believers) against a 39-year-old resident of the regional center.
According to the investigation, from 2014 to 2021, the Ulyanovsk man posted “images and texts containing mockery of the images revered in Christianity” on social networks from 2014 to 2021.
From our point of view, the indefinite concept of “insulting the religious feelings of believers” introduced into Art. 148 of the Criminal Code, does not and cannot have a clear legal meaning. We do not know the content of the publications made by a resident of Ulyanovsk, but we believe that in cases where certain statements incite hatred against followers of a religion, such actions can be qualified under Art. 20.3.1 of the Administrative Code. Otherwise, law enforcement agencies should not have initiated a case at all.
26.04.2024 – The owner of the house in Chuvashia, where Hare Krishna meetings were held, was warned
Sova – On April 23, 2024, the Office of Rosreestr for the Chuvash Republic announced a warning to the owner of a residential building in the village of Pikhtulino, where meetings of the Cheboksary Society for Krishna Consciousness were held.
Neighbors complained about the use of the house as a religious object. The inspection carried out by land inspectors revealed a violation of land legislation.
Deputy Head of the Regional Department of Rosreestr Sergey Vasyukov explained that “the law allows the use of its residential premises for worship, but establishes the limits of such actions – it is unacceptable to use the premises if it, having lost the signs of residential, acquires signs of a cult or administrative premises of a religious organization.”
In this case, as the inspectors established, the building was originally built as a cult, although the site is intended exclusively for residential development.
Sova – On April 25, 2024, the Pozharsky District Court of Primorsky Krai sentenced Anton Virich, a 44-year-old Jehovah’s Witness from Dalnerechensk. The court sentenced him to six years and two months of imprisonment in a general regime colony under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 Criminal Code (organization of the activities of an extremist organization).
During the debate of the parties on April 11, 2024, the state prosecutor asked the court to sentence Virich to six and a half years in prison and a year of restriction of liberty.
25.04.2024 – Archbishop fined for criticising Russia’s war in Ukraine
Forum 18 – A Krasnodar Region court found 87-year-old Archbishop Viktor Pivovarov guilty on 8 April of repeatedly “discrediting” the Russian Armed Forces. The judge fined him 8 months’ local average pension. Archbishop Viktor has repeatedly condemned Russia’s war against Ukraine as “aggressive” and “Satanic”. Many parishioners of Holy Intercession Tikhonite Church in Slavyansk “have been scared away by recent events”, says a church member. Archbishop Viktor is the fifth person criminally convicted for criticising Russia’s war from a religious perspective. Many more have been punished administratively.
Eighty-seven-year-old Archbishop Viktor Pivovarov has become the fifth person to receive a criminal conviction for criticising Russia’s war in Ukraine from a religious perspective. Slavyansk City Court in the southern Krasnodar Region found him guilty on 8 April of repeatedly “discrediting” the Russian Armed Forces, and fined him 150,000 Roubles, nearly eight times the local average monthly pension.
24.04.2024 – The rector of the Greek Catholic church in Omsk was placed under house arrest, the parish was under threat of liquidation
Sova – Priest Igor Maksimov is accused of rehabilitating Nazism and insulting the feelings of believers: images stylized as icons depicting Ukrainian nationalists were found in the refectory of the church.
On April 24, 2024, the Kuibyshev District Court of Omsk placed 57-year-old priest Igor Maksimov, rector of the local Greek Catholic Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, under house arrest. The regional department of the Ministry of Justice sent an administrative claim to the regional court for the liquidation of the parish as a religious organization due to gross and irreparable violations.
The day ever, Maximov was detained, it turned out that a criminal case had been initiated against him under Part 1 of Art. 354.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (rehabilitation of Nazism) and Part 2 of Art. 148 of the Criminal Code (insult to the religious feelings of believers committed in places intended for worship). He was charged with “being a servant of a local religious organization” “previously placed in the refectory stylized as icons of the “Holy Mother of God” images of Nazi accomplices (S. Bandera, R. Shukhevich, I. Slippy), available for view to an indefinite circle of people.
24.04.2024 – A Russian Orthodox priest who took part in services for Navalny is suspended by the Patriarch
AP News – The patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Chuch has suspended a priest who participated in services for the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Dmitry Safronov took part in Navalny’s funeral as well as presiding at the commemoration on March 26, the 40th day after his death — an important Russian Orthodox tradition.
An order published Tuesday on the Moscow Diocese website demoted Safronov from his position as priest to that of a psalm-reader and stripped him of the right to give blessings or wear a cassock for three years. He also was transferred to another church in the capital.
23.04.2024 – Now they came for Ak-Jaŋ. The destruction of a new-old religious movement
Bitter Winter – Russian media recently reported that on April 16 special forces cracked down throughout Altai Republic, in Southern Siberia, on another “extremist cult”: “operatives and investigators with the forceful support of the special forces of the Russian Guard, seized extremist literature, computers, phones and money” and arrested several “cultists,” including the main leader of the group. It was also reported that in faraway Ulyanovsk (some 3,000 kilometers from Altai) a “cult member” who conspired to overthrow the Putin regime had been arrested.
18.04.2024 – Judicial statistics on cases of “illegal” missionary work for 2023 have been published
Sova – On April 17, 2024, the Judicial Department under the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation published statistical information on the number of cases under Art. 5.26 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (violation of the legislation on freedom of conscience, freedom of religion and religious associations) considered by the courts for 2023.
According to these data, the number of cases considered by the courts under this article decreased slightly compared to 2022: during the year, 354 such cases were considered (in 2022 – 388).
228 persons were punished for them: 139 individuals, 74 legal and 15 officials (in 2022 – 238: 144 individuals, 91 legal, 3 officials).
As a punishment, as before, fines are most often used: they were imposed in 190 cases. In 38 cases, a written warning was issued to those prosecuted. In 11 cases, the punishment was supplemented by confiscation, in 9 – by administrative expulsion from the Russian Federation.
The total amount of fines under the resolutions that came into force decreased compared to the previous year and amounted to 2,771,000 rubles (in 2022 – 3,488,000 rubles).
18.04.2024 – Another Muslim prayer house was demolished in the Moscow region
Sova – On April 17, 2024, it became known about the demolition of the prayer house “Druzhba” between Mytishchi and Lobnya.
The court made a decision to demolish illegal construction back in 2021. The previous attempt to demolish the building was made in November 2023, but then the community agreed with the authorities to postpone it.
Earlier, the Abu Bakr prayer house was demolished in Troitsk.
18.04.2024 – Sentenced to forced labor for posting New Generation Church material on social media
Bitter Winter – The Protestant movement New Generation is a special obsession of Russian anti-cultists and the Federal Security Service (FSV), perhaps because it originated in a Baltic country and has followers in Ukraine.
The Latvian megachurch New Generation is part of the Word of Faith movement, which teaches that those who pray with faith will acquire health and prosperity. In 2021, New Generation was declared “undesirable” in Russia. On August 15, 2022, New Generation churches in Chelyabinsk, Moscow, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Krasnodar, and Sochi, were raided by special forces after having being falsely accused by Russian anti-cultists Alexander Dvorkin and Alexander Novopashin, at that time affiliated with the French-supported European federation of anti-cult movements FECRIS, of working as agents of the Ukrainian intelligence services.
17.04.2024 – Alushtinets was detained in the case of insulting the feelings of believers
Sova – Case under Art. 148 of the Criminal Code was initiated because of publications about some Orthodox shrines.
On April 15, 2024, the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Crimea and Sevastopol reported the detention of a 53-year-old resident of Alushta suspected of insulting the religious feelings of believers (Part 1 of Art. 148 of the Criminal Code).
It is alleged that he posted on the social network “photos of Orthodox shrines and unacceptable signatures accompanying them, insulting the religious feelings of believers.”
From our point of view, the indefinite concept of “insulting the religious feelings of believers” introduced into Art. 148 of the Criminal Code, does not and cannot have a clear legal meaning. We do not know the content of the images published by a resident of Alushta, but we believe that in cases where certain statements incite hatred against followers of a religion, such actions can be qualified under Art. 20.3.1 of the Administrative Code. Otherwise, law enforcement agencies should not have initiated a case at all.