Russian Assembly Votes To Shackle Minority Religions
The upper chamber of the Russian Parliament unanimously approved legislation Wednesday restricting the rights and activities of minority religions, brushing aside Western objections and sending the bill to President Boris Yeltsin, who is expected to sign it.
The Federation Council, which is made up of regional leaders, voted 137 to 0 for the legislation, despite two days of objections from Vice President Al Gore, who Wednesday completed a visit to Russia. The U.S. Senate had earlier threatened to cut off U.S. aid to Russia if the bill became law.
The Kremlin signaled this week that Yeltsin, who vetoed an earlier version of the legislation on grounds that it was unconstitutional, is prepared to sign the latest draft, which his aides helped write. The lower house, the State Duma, overwhelmingly approved the legislation Friday.
If signed by Yeltsin, the law will probably face a challenge in the Constitutional Court.
Sought by the Russian Orthodox Church, which has felt threatened by the growth of minority faiths and sects since the fall of communism, the legislation would create separate categories of religions, and place legal, financial and operational restrictions on those not deemed “traditional.”
Under the preamble to the bill, the traditional faiths are Russian Orthodoxy, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, which were in the original version, and “Christianity,” which was added to the final version.
But the text of the legislation places limits on those groups that cannot prove they have been operating in Russia for at least 15 years - a requirement that would exclude all but those that were in existence when Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died, when the state was officially atheist and religious activists and dissidents were persecuted and imprisoned.
Among denominations that might be restricted by the new law are the Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists, Pentecostalists, Jehovah’s Witnesses and many smaller sects and cults. The Vatican also has objected to the legislation.