Two commissioners of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on Tuesday published an
op-ed in the Moscow Times-- Russia's only daily English language newspaper-- highly critical of Russia's policies on religious liberty. USCIRF Chair, Katrina Lantos Swett, and USCIRF Commissioner Robert George said in part:
[I]n at least one key area, religious freedom, Russia has not changed in many respects. This assessment should provoke serious discussion as the United States faces decisions about its relationship with its former Cold War foe....
Over the past decade, the Kremlin has exploited legitimate security concerns about violent religious extremism by restricting the rights of nonviolent religious minority members. Its major tool is an extremism law. Enacted in 2002, the law imposes sanctions on religious extremism, which it defines as promoting the "exclusivity, superiority, or inferiority of citizens" based on religion. The law now applies to peaceful actors and actions.....
Simply stated, security concerns aren't the sole driver of Russia's religious freedom abuses. All too often, security is a pretext for unacceptable religious repression. Authorities view certain groups, particularly those seeking converts, as threats to the country's religious and cultural identity as embodied in the Russian Orthodox Church's Moscow Patriarchate.
Their assessment appears harsher than the one appearing in the U.S. State Department's recently-released 2011 Report on International Religious Freedom (see prior posting). The State Department's section on the
situation in Russia said in part:
The constitution provides for freedom of religion; however, other laws and policies restrict religious freedom by denying some groups legal status and misidentifying their literature as extremist. In practice the government generally respected religious freedom, but some minority denominations continued to experience difficulties.
