|||||
From: martinottmann@yahoo.com (Martin Ottmann)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Russian OSA message from July 20th, 1994
Date: 27 Jan 2003 15:13:46 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com/
Lines: 176
Message-ID: <71d327bb.0301271513.55f41254@posting.google.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.198.0.96
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Trace: posting.google.com 1043709227 30609 127.0.0.1 (27 Jan 2003 23:13:47 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 27 Jan 2003 23:13:47 GMT
Path: news2.lightlink.com!news.lightlink.com!quark.scn.rain.com!chilly.oregonvos.net!canoe.uoregon.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail
Xref: news2.lightlink.com alt.religion.scientology:1590751

2007100 otl russia
a/invest aide osa eu
info: d/co dsas osa eu, pred and invest chf osai, cont/sect inv
handling off osai, pr pgms exec chf osai, csi research and analyis off
osai

re: russia religion law

dear mark,

here are key data about the religion scene as related to the religion
law preps in the state duma. since the last couple of months there are
several law projects submitted inside the duma for consideration or as
attempts to spark off a united law change. also major religious orgs
have submitted their input to the duma as follows:

a) russian orthodox church 12.5.94

"1.2 all kinds of activities or religious orgs since being
non-profitable and getting money resources only in order to transfer 
them to people again, should be released frm all kinds of taxes, incl.
the vat ... also exemption from customs duties on the goods imported
by religious orgs from abroad.

"1.3 one of the problems, which agitates both the orthodox church
community and many people of a different faith and non-belivers as
well, is still the necessity to protect the society against the
encroachment on life, health,  rights, freedoms and dignity of a human
being on the part of the extremist religious and pseudo-religious
groups. this problem have already been covered in amendments to the 
criminal code of russian federation, not long ago introduced by the
russian parliament, and now it is necessary for the rigth-protecting
bodies and legal power to strictly promote the realization of the
passed law".

"1.4 there is one more urgent problem still existing - the lack of
some right norms in russia, regulating the professional religious
activity of foreign citizens on the territory of russia. the solving
of this problem we see in the removal of withdrawal of professional
religious activity from the regulation about the use of foreign labour
force in russia ... in case this amendment is  introduced, this
regulation makes the professional activity of foreigners in the
religious sphere quite possible, but only if a foreign citizen has an
invitation for exercising such an activity from a russian religious
org, which is entitled to use the foreigners labour and obtains the
permission of  corresponding state bodies for it." ...

"1.5 ... it should be recognized inadmissible to create in the system
of executive power certain administrative organs, which possess
special executive, administrative and control authorities with respect
to religious orgs, and withdrawal of these authorities from the sphere
of activity of corresponding ministries and departments."

"2.3 the idea of calling of interconfessional "round tables" or
meetings for discussion the views of russian religious assoc. on the
problems of improving the legislation about the freedom of conscience
and the activity of religious orgs is considered to be advisable and
useful ... the representation on such meetings ought to be regulated
with regard for the number of followers of one or other religion or
confession in russian federation. the interests of scanty (less then
25000 members) religious assoc on such meetings can be represented by
more numerous religious assoc on a mutual agreement between the first
and the latter ones."

the catholic church put in a letter to the duma and the union of
evangelical christian-baptists of russia did as well. here is quote
from the latter: "it is necessary to make a thoroughly considered
approach with the participation of representatives of all confessions.
only with respect for their remarks and wishes such a bill could be
scheduled for hearing in the state duma."

proposals on the lines of the state duma: draft by democratic party
russia: it mainly focuses on properties to be restored to the churches
and religious orgs that existed before the current religion law from
1990. but it has a weight on foreign msnrs by demanding that these
only can work in russia provided they do so per the law for foreign
workers, per invitation from russian religious orgs which have
permission to invite, use foreign labour, and this again under 
control of ministry of justice or any other organ of the russian
federation. this is restrictive.

draft by lisitchkin from the zhirinovsky party: was made and was
extreme in its attempt to back up the orthodox church but disregarding
any other religions. this draft was not considered valid for use in
the duma.

more recent draft by two deputies glasiev and lisitchkin: (no data
about their party lines but seems it is lisitchkin in a new attempt)
the title of this draft "recognition of the property rights of russian
religious orgs" and it only concerns exactly that, has section of e.g.
foeign [sic] msnrs or anything else which would be of our interest.

besides the duma project/poposals above there is a thick proposal from
the rusian [sic] government, which is thought to be put on the lines
as attempt to get duma deputies to use in their work. this proposal i
have not translated as i have a reliable ally who read it and found it
not different than the already existing religion law from 1990, which
has the proper principles of freedom of religion.

there were activity in the duma in june and rumours about fast to get
a law proposal agreed upon so the first hearing could be scheduled.
but so far there is no agreement stablished within the legislative
deputies. most likely the law proposing work will not really happen
until autumn/winter. but the fact that there are projects in the duma
for this law change makes the lobbyists go on the line of the duma. we
know that a parents committe last week attempted to get a meeting with
duma deputies about this law but this got prevented.

parallel to the above the non-profit charity committee for saving the
youth with deputy chairman alexei dunts made media in moscow times
21.6.94: "the moscow duma is launching an investigation into the issue
this month, the results will be used to push for major legislative
changes, a duma official says. the dangerous sects appear to be mother
of god centre, aum sinrike group and the white brotherhood. an
independant commission will be formed from lawyers, religious
specialists and medical doctors by early july to study the working and
effects of such sects. a source close to the investigation confirmed
that no charges have ben [sic] brought against the cults yet. in an
open letter this month signed by 26 of the city dumas 35 deputies
media orgs were urged to be more cautious with giving air time and
page space to religious orgs.

in june there was an international christian conference in the russian
orthodox church where patriarch aleksey 2nd  in  his welcome speech
incl "the positive changes in the field of religious freedom that have
restored a full-fledged  life for traditional churches and religious
orgs at the same time have created a situation in which destructive
actions committed by some religious and pseudo-religious groups have
noticeably darkened religio-social and interconfessional relations".

but in an appeal from the same confrence it was expressed: "we share
the commitment to generally accepted principles of respect for human
rights, incl. the right to freedom of conscience and equality of
people of different nationalities religious and other convictions
before law. we are profoundly concerned over violations of human
rights today ... in our service to society we are open to co-operation
with the followers of other religions".

howver [sic] the concluding doc from the conference did incl. negative
comment as follows "spreading of sects and new religious movements,
development of heathenism and satanist cults, the problem of
proselytism is very important".

these are the main data.

recommendation: 

1. get the law change of crime law for russia re acting on religious
orgs, get it interpreted by lawyer for its use. work out handling as
needed.

2. work out a handling of the damaging "sects" so they get d.a.ed and
not categorized as regular religions.

3. gather other faiths in a meeting and brief up on the scene as per
above, suply them with d.a. docs re arm forces in russia and work out
basic idea on proposal to the duma and who would be the person to
represent all in this  matter. this meeting is set for 25 july by now
and we wll gather as many as possible in this holliday [sic] period.

4. review the many other data gathered on the scene to pick out any
other aspects for use in handling the sit with the law.

5. when docs arrive from eu pr office select best one for use with
deputies etc in this sit and get them prof translated and put into
duma lines.

6. meet with ally from federal council lines (upper house) and liaise
with him any other lines for use in getting proper data onto the
deputies.

7. get internatl allies to cont sending open letters to the patriach
about the freedom of religion in russia and get the totalitarian grip
from the past finally lifted.

ml co osa cis