Russian Ministry of Justice to “Liquidate” Religious Groups, including the ROAC: Protests

For English translations of protests following, click the title link. The Suzdal Diocese of the ROAC under Metropolitan Valentine is one of the 50 groups scheduled for liquidation. NFTU

(Portal-Credo/Stetson Univ.) The Ministry of Justice of Russia intends to initiate the liquidation, by judicial means, of more than 50 religious organizations which earlier were registered by this authority.

“The corresponding list of organizations for which the Ministry of Justice plans to file suit for liquidation, is posted on the agency’s website,” a representative of the Ministry of Justice told Interfax on 15 October.

He said that the basis on which the procedure of liquidation will be begun is “failure to submit to the Ministry of Justice a list of notices and documents provided for by law.”

Among the candidates for liquidation are organizations belonging to Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and other religious associations.

This includes, in particular, such organizations as the Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of the Volga region, the Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of the Association of Mosques of Russia, the Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of Karachaev-Cherkesia and Stavropol, the Bogorod diocese of the Kievan patriarchate, the Kazan-Viatsk diocese of the Russian Orthodox Old-ritualist Autonomous church, the Moscow branch of the Institute for the Study of Judaism, and the Central Ecclesiastical Board of Buddhists of Russia (an alternative Buddhist structure in Buriatia). (tr. by PDS, posted 24 October 2008)