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A shocking event is being discussed in Nizhny Novgorod. Two young people who had declared their nontraditional sexual orientation have openly announced that they were married by an active priest of the Russian Orthodox church. From the start the story about the marriage of two gays, Denis Gogolev and Mikhail Morozov, seemed like a silly "hoax." However, in reality everything turned out much more serious. The events that occurred in one of the Nizhegorod chapels on 1 September have become different in their retelling by the priest and the "spouses" themselves.
The first version, the Orthodox one, was presented to the Nizhny Novgorod diocese by the priest himself. Father Vladimir serves in one of the most beautiful Nizhegorod churches, the Stroganov church. He recently became acquainted with Denis and Mikhail; they summoned Fr Vladimir to bless their apartment. Then they went to his church to be baptized. The priest performed the rituals of baptism and blessing. And then, on 1 September Mikhail and Denis appeared at the chapel on one of the streets of Nizhny Novgorod. They had come to an agreement with the priest beforehand. Fr Vladimir maintains that he did not know the intentions of the young men to be married; he simply consented to conduct a prayer service (or in another version, to hear their confessions). At some point he turned around. And then from out of who knows where there appeared crowns on the heads of Denis and Mikhail. Fr Vladimir asked them to remove the crowns and at this point everything was over. There was no ritual of marriage.
"Everything was there--the ritual, the wine, the crowns; and we were led around the altar three times," Denis says. "We have the photographs of how the rings were put on our hands."
The couple maintains that they paid the priest 15,000 rubles for the ceremony. They explain their action by saying that "we got tired of the accusations that we are cohabiting together in sin."
We went to the Stroganov church. Fr Vladimir was not there. According to Izvestiia's information, he was whisked away to the Makary monastery before all the circumstances of the affair were examined and the church's rector's health was severely shaken after the information was heaped on him.
"The Russian Orthodox church unconditionally condemns the very idea of 'same sex marriage' and it has traditionally condemned homosexual relations as a mortal sin in accordance with Holy Scripture and the tradition of the church," the official statement of the Nizhegorod diocese says. According to Father Igor Pchelintsev, the press secretary of the diocese, everything that happened in the Nizhegorod chapel with Mikhail and Denis cannot be considered a marriage. "This is an attack by the devil," Fr Igor declared. "Fr Vladimir has been officially banned from ministry. He now is not a priest. As regards these young people, the church will not persecute them and, if they sincerely repent, it will receive them 'with open arms.' But soon nobody will be interested in these people. They will be forgotten quickly."
Perhaps ordinary residents of Nizhny Novborod will forget, but not Father Vladimir and his son. Denis and Mikhail have already read in one of the newspapers the emotional statement of the son about how he is ready to kill Mikhail and Denis if something happens to Father Vladimir. The "spouses" reacted instantly. "We wrote a statement to the Department of Internal Affairs of Kanavinsky district concerning the threat of physical repression," Denis and Mikhail declare.
All things considered, they do not realize the weight of their sin. (tr. by PDS, posted 6 September 2003)
PRIEST WHO MARRIED "GAYS" SECRETLY DISAPPEARS
by Marina Bulgakova, Yulia Kapitanova
Komsomolskaia pravda, 6 September 2003
And his son threatens the "young people."
The scandalous marriage of a gay couple that was reported Wednesday has had quite predictable consequences. Representatives of the Orthodox church did not believe the reality of the ritual from the start. And even colleagues in the newspaper guild hastened to accuse "Komsomolka" of publishing unverified facts.
Alas. In fact, nothing had been fabricated. The whole truth is in the pictures (the negatives are in the editorial office): Father Vladimir and the couple with crowns over their heads; he leads the "young people" around the lectern; he puts the rings on.
The incident also was confirmed by the Nizhegorod diocese in yesterday's statement: "The priest concluded a same sex marriage and committed a most gross violation of church discipline and he has been banned from clerical ministry for commission of blasphemous actions."
At that time the disgraced Father Vladimir was missing. Neighbors say that some things were being taken out of his apartment all night, and in the morning he himself left. To where?
According to our information, on 2 September the priest was sent to the Makary convent. Into exile? But then why choose a functioning convent?
"In the evening of 3 September a 'Volga' approached the walls of the convent and took the padre off in an unknown direction," the nuns informed us and then crossed themselves.
Yesterday the married gays, Denis Gogolev and Mikhail Morozov, opened the local tabloid and read threats from the priest's son Kirill: "If something happens to my father, I also will commit a sin; I will kill these scum." Reporters of "Namedni" who were at that moment in the gay couple's apartment whistled. The whole gang then went to the Department of Internal Affairs where Denis wrote a statement about the threats. Incidentally, the sweet couple were received like stars at the department. Police officers came running from nearby departments in order to meet personally the notorious personalities.
And there is more. The whole team went to the Wedding Palace. The director of the palace, Svetlana Kosheleva, smiled kindly and explained that she was not authorized to register a same sex marriage. But she advised going to the provincial registry department for permission.
"You see, we are required to register a civil marriage officially," Denis declared. Reporters only threw up their hands. (tr. by PDS, posted 6 September 2003)
"WEDDING" ENDS IN SCANDAL
by Alexander Korolev
Trud, 6 September 2003
By decision of Bishop Georgi of Nizhegorod and Arsamas, Archpriest Vladimir, rector of the Nizhny Novgorod church of the Nativity, was removed from his position and banned from ministry for having recently married a homosexual couple who are well known in the provincial center, Denis Gogolev and Mikhail Morozov, in one of the chapels. And although, according to the priest, he had become the victim of deception on the part of these young people (he supposedly was performing at their request not a marriage but a prayer service, but when he was distracted for a second they suddenly raised crowns on themselves and at that moment they were photographed), it cannot be ruled out that the guilty Fr Vladimir will be unfrocked. A special diocesan commission is now engaged in a study of how everything actually happened.
Commenting for "Trud" on the "marriage" of homosexuals that is unprecedented for the Russian church, the director of the Secretariat for Relations between Church and Society, Father Mikhail Dudko, said in particular: "Holy Scripture and the teaching of the church unequivocally condemn homosexual sexual relations, seeing in them an immoral distortion of divinely created human nature. The Orthodox church acts from the unchanged conviction that the divinely established marital union of a man and a woman cannot be equated with perverse manifestations of sexuality. Thus in the official statement of the diocesan leadership with regard to what happened, it is absolutely stated: 'Under no conditions can what was done be considered a marriage.' "
In addition, it has become known that the "married persons" received telephone calls from embassies of several foreign countries. The callers expressed readiness to offer the "young marrieds" political asylum in the event that they were suddenly "subjected to any persecution." (tr. by PDS, posted 6 September 2003)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
Attorneys for Andrei Okhotin appealed the guilty verdict issued on 22 August by the Golovinsky court that found the 28-year-old American guilty of smuggling in accordance with article 188, part 1, of the Criminal Code of RF, the Slavic Legal Center reports. Andrei Okhotin also filed a separate appeal in his own name, explaining several facts and circumstances of the affair that were not considered or incorrectly interpreted by the court.
On 29 March 2003, Andrei Okhotin arrived at Sheremetevo on flight 031 from New York to Moscow carrying 48,000 US dollars; while passing along the "green" customs corridor he was stopped by a customs officer. During the inspection he produced the money, his completed declaration, and an accompanying letter and bank documents.
The court found that Okhotin intentionally concealed the money and did not produce the customs declaration, and it sentenced him to six months of prison with six months probation. The court ordered that the money, which belongs to the Russian Evangelical Mission (USA), that Andrei Okhotin was carrying for aid to needy families of evangelical believers in Russia be turned over to the government, which will pay these families seventy rubles per child in grants.
Attorneys Vladimir Riakhovsky and Anatoly Pchelintsev consider the sentence illegal, baseless, and subject to overturn. Okhotin could not have committed the crime for which he was convicted since, according to the Criminal Code, in order for there to be a crime committed, direct intent is necessary, which was not and could not have been present in Okhotin's actions.
In accordance with Russian legislation, he could transport into Russia any sum of foreign currency, with the only requirement in doing so being observance of customs rules. Hence the question: how could there be a motive for the commission of the crime that the court ruled as smuggling?
Andrei Okhotin knew that he could bring in currency without restrictions, he did not hide it, and he had previously filled out the declaration for the entire sum of currency. And if he had gone down the "red" corridor, he would have fulfilled all the rules of customs control. Not knowing the specifics of the Russian customs rules, the American citizen took the green corridor simply because there was a shorter line there. When he did this he committed only a technical violation of customs rules, but he did not commit a crime in any way, the appeal says. Numerous scholarly and practical commentaries on the Criminal Code indicate that under such circumstances the essence of a crime is absent. Thus, in one of them it says that "undeclared goods that are subject to declaration or a statement . . . of insufficient information, which do not have and could not have an impact on customs allowing them across the border, do not constitute the essence of smuggling."
The judge of the Golovinsky court, Igor Yakovlev, found criminal intent in "Okhotin's foresight, since he was concerned about the accompanying letter and declaration," and he stated that "the attempt to transport the money secretly" also is a motive for a crime. This conclusion was based exclusively on preconditions and intents, and doubts about Okhotin's guilt were interpreted by the court against him, contrary to Russian legislation. However neither the court nor the preliminary investigation gave any assessment to the actions of the customs officials who, according to Andrei Okhotin, tried to bribe him.
An expert of the legal department of the Customs Committee, A.P. Ionov, who was summoned to the trial as a specialist, declared that the customs officials were obligated to explain to Okhotin his rights and responsibilities in the course of the inspection, especially since he asked about them himself. However Inspector Demakin, who conducted the search, did not do this.
In addition, the attorneys suggest, in making the decision regarding the confiscation of the currency, the court violated rights of its owner, the Russian Evangelical Mission. It was not disputed in court that Okhotin was merely transporting the money, although the court, which knew this, did not bring the mission into the case, thereby grossly violating the rights of this organization.
In the attorneys' opinion, the course of the case had been largely predetermined by the official statement of MID of RF that Okhotin violated customs legislation and would be punished. The statement was made long before the materials of the case had been delivered to the court, and from that moment the case became a political one.
According to law, an appeal against a verdict must be reviewed in the Moscow city court within a month from the day of its submission. If the verdict is not overturned, Andrei Okhotin and the Slavic Legal Center intend to seek justice in higher judicial instances. (tr. by PDS, posted 5 September 2003)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
"In all periods of its history Russia has had special relations with the Muslim and Arab world," Russian President Vladimir Putin declared during conversations with the heir apparent of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Prince Abdalla ben Abdel Aziz al-Saud, "Islam.ru" reports, citing "Kremlin.ru." According to Putin, "in the course of an extended time in modern history we always viewed the Arab world, the Muslim world, as one of our closest allies."
The president also called it the "traditional direction of Russian foreign policy" that "has been evoked by a whole series of circumstances of an economic and domestic and foreign policy character." In conclusion to the talks a whole series of agreements was adopted, in particular about cooperation in the spheres of petroleum, science, trade, and athletics. (tr. by PDS, posted 5 September 2003)
AMBASSADOR FOR SPECIAL ASSIGNMENTS OF RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY TO GO
TO MUSLIM COUNTRIES
Portal-credo.ru,
5 September 2003
The ambassador for special assignments of MID of the Russian federation for relations with the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Veniamin Popov, will travel next week on a trip around Muslim countries, "NEWSru.com" reports.
In a conversation with an ITAR-TASS correspondent held yesterday, he recalled the initiative mounted by Russian President Vladimir Putin for uniting Russia to the OIC in observer status. According to the Russian diplomat, within the framework of implementing this proposal, "MID of Russia has conducted considerable exploratory and diplomatic work."
"Russia is interested in an active dialogue with OIC," Popov noted. "The Russian federation is a country with a predominantly Christian population, but almost 20 million Muslims live on its territory," the diplomat said. "Thus one can say that the Russian federation is to a certain degree a part of the Islamic world." "Russia is one of the few countries on the planet where many cultures and many religious coexist, and are developing and fulfilling one another," the diplomat said.
"If Russia joins OIC then it will be able even more successfully to conduct a dialogue of the civilizations," Popov stressed. "Now the most important task is not confrontation, but dialogue. It is impossible to divide people into first and second classes or lower and higher civilizations. Mutual action is necessary; we must coexist in the world in order to resolve common problems." The first point on Veniamin Popov's trip about the Islamic world could be Turkey.
Relations between Russia and OIC were one of the topics of conversations in Moscow with the heir apparent, Saudi Prince Abdalla II. The kingdom is one of the most influential countries of the Muslim world. (tr. by PDS, posted 5 September 2003)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
During a session on 2 September of the Liski district civil court of Voronezh province, ten Christians of Evangelical Faith who participated in a tent demonstration "You were not meant for drugs!" that authorities and the police of Liski broke up as an unsanctioned event were found guilty on article 20 part 2 of the Code of Administrative Crimes of RF ("violation of established procedure for conducting gatherings, meetings, demonstrations, and processions"). As a "Portal-credo.ru" correspondent reports, the punishment established by the court was a fine of 1,000 rubles per person for nine of them. A tenth, 67-year-old retiree Viktor Kotlov, was given an oral warning.
Viktor Kotlov claims that at the police station to which he had been taken along with his fellow believers representatives of the police broke his leg. After the break up of the event, 12-year-old Artem Kholansky, who is in the hospital with a concussion, and 9-year-old Lidia Protsenko were taken to medical institutions of the city of Liski. The girl was diagnosed with a strained shoulder. Eighteen other children required medical care for the great stress that they suffered from what they observed.
According to the pastor of the Liski congregation of Christians of Evangelical Faith, Grigory Protsenko, quoted in "Kommersant-Chernozemie," the judge did not even listen to the explanations of the accused. Thus "Kotlov was told that he probably had tripped and broken his own leg, and the other participants, according to the judge, also caused their own bruises."
Pentecostals who disagreed with the court's decision filed an appeal at a higher judicial instance.
The trial of the president of the "Center of Spiritual Ministry," Pastor Andrei Bashmakov of Voronezh, who is considered the event's chief organizer, which had been scheduled for the next day, was postponed for a week. The case was sent to another judge for review.
As the director of the Institute of Religion and Law, Anatoly Pchelintsev, told "Portal-credo.ru," the actions of the authorities and police, and the first decision of the court with regard to the Pentecostals, are completely illegal. The organizers of the tent demonstration did not violate the law by one iota, since the notification of the local authorities about conducting such events bears an exclusively informative character and the appropriate notifications were given. Attorneys of the Slavic Legal Center have already won such cases frequently, the famous attorney stressed, where authorities tried to present believers as violators of the standards for conducting public events. (tr. by PDS, posted 5 September 2003)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
As reported earlier, the Nizhny Novgorod gay couple Denis Gogolev and Mikhail Morozov were married on 1 September in one of the Orthodox chapels of Nizhny Novgorod. The ritual of marriage was performed by Orthodox priest Vladimir for 15,000 rubles. After the information regarding this was published by news media, the leadership of the local diocese of RPTsMP banned Fr Vladimir from ministry.
Meanwhile, reporters became interested in the Nizhny Novgorod gays, including those of foreign news media. "Literally all of the large foreign television companies have telephoned," Denis Gogolev told Komsomolskaia pravda. "Immediately after the article, an ambassador of one of the European countries called and said that if persecution of us begins, they will offer political asylum."
Fr Vladimir, who "married" the homosexuals, told "Regions.ru" that he went with them into a chapel simply to conduct a prayer service, and at the end of the prayer service they unexpectedly donned crowns and were photographed. At that time Fr Vladimir had not yet seen the published pictures where he was personally putting a ring on Mikhail Morozov's hand. Komsomolskaia pravda writes that it is in possession of the negatives of all photographs, since it cannot be ruled out that there could be a falsification. (tr. by PDS, posted 5 September 2003)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
A Nizhny Novgorod priest who married a homosexual couple will most likely be deprived of his ordination. This will become clear after the conclusion of the work of a commission that is investigating this incident. For now he is forbidden to conduct any church rituals.
On Thursday the leadership of the Nizhegorod diocese forbade Fr Vladimir, who married two men in accordance with the Orthodox ritual, to serve in church. As a "Gazeta.ru" correspondent reports from Nizhny Novgorod, today an official statement was distributed in which it is said that "the priest who conducted a 'same sex marriage' committed a most gross violation of church discipline and on 2 September 2003 he was banned from clerical ministry for having committed blasphemous actions." As representatives of the diocese explained to "Gazeta.ru," until the completion of the investigation he remains within the bosom of the church although he is forbidden to conduct any rituals that pertain to clerical ministry.
"The Russian Orthodox church unconditionally condemns the very idea of 'same sex marriage' and it traditionally condemns homosexual relations as a mortal sin in accordance with Holy Scripture and the tradition of the church. The commission that was appointed by the ruling bishop of the diocese, Bishop Georgi, conducted an investigation that showed that under no circumstances can what was done be considered a marriage," the statement says.
Whatever the results of the investigation, the diocese considers this action as a preconceived provocation that was intended to bring sensational attention to the problem of same sex marriages.
According to information in the local news media, Denis Gogolev and Mikhail Morozov were married in one of the wooden chapels located in the center of Nizhny Novgorod on Monday, 1 September, at 4:00 p.m. According to the youths, the priest, Fr Vladimir, consented immediately to conducting the ritual in accordance with all canons of the church. For this he received 15,000 rubles, ten times what is usually paid by Nizhnygorod youth for conducting the ritual.
Mikhail acted in the capacity of the groom while Denis acted in the capacity of the bride Dionisiia. Now the commission is trying to ascertain all of the circumstances of this event.
The marriage is not the first escapade of the male couple. Back in the spring of this year they declared themselves, when Mikhail decided to participate in the "Miss Nizhny Novgorod" contest. However fortunately he was not admitted into the competition.
The Orthodox church completely rejects same sex marriage, declared the vice chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow patriarchate, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin. And he added that the priest who conducted such rituals of marriage must certainly be unfrocked.
On this question the Catholic church is in complete agreement with the Orthodox church. On 31 July 2003 the Vatican published a document in which it condemned same sex marriage. In addition, the leadership of the Roman Catholic church views the registration of same sex marriages by civil authorities negatively. Jews, evangelicals, and Muslims also have spoken out against the registration of same sex marriages. (tr. by PDS, posted 4 September 2003)
RUSSIAN CHURCH IN GAY WEDDING ROW
BBC,
4 September 2003
The Russian Orthodox Church has defrocked a priest for conducting the country's first reported gay wedding.
Church authorities in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, east of Moscow, said the ceremony was a blasphemous act and a gimmick to attract public attention to single-sex unions.
"The Russian Orthodox Church is against single-sex marriages and condemns homosexual relations as a deadly sin," the diocese press service said in a statement.
Misha and I want to show that gays can and should live in Russia, and quite openly Denis Gogolev
A spokesman for the diocese described the priest who conducted the service, Father Vladimir, as a "black sheep".
Partners Denis Gogolev and Misha Morozov have described the ceremony, which took place on Monday, as the first ever gay church wedding in Russia.
"Misha and I want to show that gays can and should live in Russia, and quite openly," Mr Gogolev said.
'Spouses'
They took their vows in a small chapel, exchanging rings, circling the altar and donning crowns as in a traditional Orthodox wedding.
Newspaper reports said there was some confusion during the service, with the priest asking who was the husband and who was the wife.
Mr Gogolev replied that they did not mind and both wished to be considered "spouses".
Homosexual relations between men were considered a crime in Soviet times.
They were legalised in 1993 - though a group of members of the Russian parliament last year tried to reverse the move in what they said was a campaign to restore traditional moral values.
Excommunication
The Russian Orthodox Church also opposes euthanasia, abortion and artificial insemination.
A priest who conducts a gay wedding could face excommunication, Father Alexander of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese told the Reuters news agency.
Both the men married by Father Vladimir are standing in December's parliamentary elections.
They are putting their hopes in the female vote.
"Women love and respect us," Denis said. "They even idolise us."
(posted 4 September 2003)
OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF PRESS SERVICE OF NIZHEGOROD DIOCESE OF RPTsMP WITH REGARD TO "MARRIAGE" OF HOMOSEXUALS
Materials have appeared in the central press that supposedly in Nizhny Novgorod there was a wedding between two men. The press service of the Nizhegorod diocese officially declares: we consider that a preconceived provocation was performed intending to call sensational attention to the problem of so-called "same sex marriages." The Russian Orthodox church unconditionally condemns the very idea of "same sex marriage" and it has traditionally condemned homosexual relations as a mortal sin in accordance with Holy Scripture and the tradition of the church.
A commission appointed by the ruling bishop of the diocese conducted an investigation that showed that the deed that was performed cannot under any circumstances be considered a marriage. The priest who committed this most gross violation of church discipline has been banned from clerical service for commission of blasphemous acts on 2 September 2003.
Press Secretary of Nizhegorod diocese of the Russian Orthodox church,
Father Igor Pchelintsev
(tr. by PDS, posted 5 September 2003)
Published on the Portal-credo.ru site, 4 September 2003
Russia Religion News Current News Items
It was provocative, as modern art often is. But few of those involved could have foreseen just how provocative it would become when the Sakharov Museum here opened an exhibition of paintings and sculptures in January under the title "Caution! Religion."
Four days after the Jan. 14 opening, six men from a Russian Orthodox church came to the museum's exhibition hall and sacked it, defacing many of the 45 works with spray paint and destroying others. "Sacrilege," one of them scrawled on the wall.
The police came and quickly arrested the men, but their actions -- described either as heroism or hooliganism -- began a highly charged debate not only over the state of freedom of expression in Russia today but also over the ever-growing influence of the Orthodox Church.
Priests denounced the museum -- named after the Soviet-era physicist and dissident Andrei D. Sakharov. Church members began a letter-writing campaign defending the attackers.
Somewhere along the way, the tables turned on the museum, its director and the exhibition's artists. The lower house of Parliament passed a resolution condemning the museum and the exhibition's organizers.
The criminal charges against four of the six men were dropped early on for lack of evidence -- even though they had been detained inside the building. Then on Aug. 11, with several hundred Orthodox believers holding a vigil outside, a court here threw out the charges against the others, Mikhail Lyukshin and Anatoly Zyakin, saying they had been unlawfully prosecuted.
The court made it clear that an investigation should continue -- not against those who attacked the exhibit, but against the museum itself.
"The museum is now the enemy of the people," said its director, Yuri V. Samodurov.
The furor over the exhibition has thrust into opposition two groups that had suffered together during seven decades of state ideology and atheism. In the 12 years since the Soviet Union collapsed, both artists and religious believers have flourished in a new Russia. In this case, though, each side accuses the other of exploiting Russia's new freedom to infringe on its rights.
"This freedom opened the gates so that thick streams of dirt are flooding all around," the Rev. Aleksandr Shargunov, one of the church's most outspoken conservatives, said of the post-Soviet society. "The church is a very narrow stream of clean water."
The men who attacked the exhibit are members of his church in Moscow, St. Nikolai in Pyzhi. Some of them work there, and Father Aleksandr organized the campaign for their defense and against the museum. He compared the exhibition to a rape or a terrorist act.
"For a believer," he said, "this sacrilege is equivalent to the destruction of a church, which is what happened in the near past in Russia."
The museum, dedicated to Mr. Sakharov's legacy, regularly presents exhibitions intended to cause debate, including subjects like the Soviet legacy, human rights and the war in Chechnya. Never before has one provoked such an outcry.
The exhibition's works all addressed religion, but Mr. Samodurov said the theme was not antireligious as much as anticlerical. Some of the artists themselves are Orthodox believers, he said, and the exhibition was not meant to offend.
One sculpture, by Alina Gurevich, that offended nonetheless depicted a church made of vodka bottles, a pointed reference to the tax exemption the church received in the 1990's to sell alcohol.
A poster by Aleksandr Kosolapov, a Russian-born American whose previous work has satirized symbols of the Soviet and Russian state, depicted Jesus on a Coca-Cola advertisement. "This is my blood," it said in English.
Another work was a large icon covering by Alisa Zrazhevskaya, which took its title from the Second Commandment, "Thou Shalt Not Carve Idols Unto Thee," and left a hole for a viewer's head, hand and Bible like a carnival placard. "Gady," or "vipers," was painted on it.
The works are now in the local prosecutor's office, and most of the artists have been called in for questioning. The exhibition's curator, Arutyun Zulumyan, an Armenian, has gone into hiding.
The museum's lawyers received notice the week before last that a commission of experts had been formed to decide whether the exhibit incited interethnic or interreligious hatred, which is a crime in the Russian criminal code. Mr. Samodurov said he feared that the outcome was predetermined because none of those appointed, he said, were experts in modern art.
If charged and convicted, the exhibition's organizers could face $7,500 to $11,600 in fines, three years of probation or two to four years in prison.
Another artist, Anna Alchuk, said in an interview that her work -- an arrangement of four medallions she found while moving to a new apartment -- was intended to explore the religious belief in personal salvation. She recalled that in Soviet times such a theme would have been strictly forbidden; she wonders whether it still is.
"There are many things written in the Constitution -- freedom of speech, freedom of religion -- but we've seen how they exist in reality," she said.
Aleksandr B. Chuyev, a member of Parliament and, like Mr. Sakharov, a dissident during the Soviet period, disagreed.
Closely allied with the Orthodox Church, he sponsored the resolution calling on prosecutors to investigate the museum. He defended the men who destroyed the exhibition, saying they had acted within their rights to prevent a crime. Democracy, he said, necessitates respect for the beliefs of others.
"There are acceptable boundaries within which it is possible to express an opinion," he said, "as long as it doesn't affect the rights of Orthodox believers."
Russia Religion News Current News Items
On 29 August responsible persons in the administration of the city of Liski, Voronezh province, along with local police officers, broke up a demonstration titled "You were not meant for drugs!" Nine persons, including the organizers of the event, the president of the "Center for Spiritual Rebirth" (Voronezh), Pastor Andrei Bashmakov, and the pastor of the congregation of the United Churches of Christians of Evangelical Faith, Grigory Protsenko, were arrested and taken to the police station. As Pastor Andrei Bashmakov told a "Portal-credo.ru" correspondent, brute force was applied to the believers and they were beaten both in the street and at the police station. Among the victims were a woman and child, the wife and twelve-year-old son of Pastor Protsenko. The boy was beaten about the head. Everything that happened in the street was recorded by photographs and videotape and, according to Pastor Bashmakov, these materials have already been sent to Moscow information agencies and to a number of national television channels.
According to information from the victims, the following responsible persons participated in the break up: a vice chairman of one of the committees of the city administration, Sergei Chestikin, the chief of the administration of city economy, Viktor Liskin, the assistant chief of the Department of Internal Affairs of the city, Vasily Baturov, the chief of the criminal investigation division, Nikolai Menakurov, and the head of arresting group, Nikolai Tsygankov.
In the very near future the Christians of Evangelical Faith who were arrested by the police on 29 August (the believers were released from the police station after several hours) will go before the court on a charge of violating administrative legislation by conducting a public demonstration without permission of the authorities.
Beginning in 2000 the Russian association of the Christians of Evangelical Faith mission along with the "Center for Spiritual Ministry" have conducted without interruption anti-drug events both in covered, rented premises and in open squares throughout the territory of Voronezh province. The organizers of the current event in a tent in Liski informed the mayor of the city, Viktor Shevtsov, in writing more than a month previously, on 28 July, about the planned event; however they received no answer. Then three days before the start of the event they again informed the mayor, and this time also no answer from the authorities followed.
As Pastor Andrei Bashmakov told a "Portal-credo.ru" correspondent, on the morning of 29 August, about thirty persons, police officers and people in civilian clothes who refused to identify themselves, came to the empty lot "located in the most drug-infested district of Liski," where the believers had started to pitch a tent and set up and test their video and audio equipment. The beginning of a concert was scheduled for 6:00 p.m. Then a representative of the mayor's office, Sergei Chestikin, appeared and declared that since the organizers did not have permission documents he had an order to dismantle the equipment by 1:00 p.m. He also stressed that he was taking all responsibility for the subsequent development of events if the believers did not leave the area and move to a different place next to a cemetery. At approximately 3:30 the police began dismantling the tent. The employees of the mayor's office and the police officers ignored the demands from organizers of the event to present the orders of the prosecutor's office for use of force.
It is expected that on 2 September, the famous Moscow attorney who specializes in the area of defense of religious freedoms, the director of the "Institute of Religion and Law," Anatoly Pchelintsev, will arrive in Voronezh and Liski. (tr. by PDS, posted 1 September 2003)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
On 30 August the head of the administration of Stavropol, Sergei Kobylkin, forbade the director of the Labor Union Palace of Culture, Gennady Levin, and the organizers of a congress planned by the Jehovah's Witnesses to conduct this event, citing an order by the mayor regarding conducting mass events at times of heightened danger of terrorist acts. The Palace of Culture had been rented for the weekend for holding a summer regional congress of Jehovah's Witnesses. After standing in the street for several hours the Jehovists, of whom over 1,000 had gathered, dispersed around 1:00 p.m.
As the director of the centralized religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, Vasily Kalin, told a "Portal-credo.ru" correspondent, the local religious organization intends to file suit in court against the management of the Stavropol Palace of Culture and Sport for having unilaterally violated the conditions of the rental agreement. Vasily Kalin reported also that a circus had been rented for the previous weekend for the same purposes. The management of the circus refused to extend the agreement for this weekend. (tr. by PDS, posted 1 September 2003)
Russia Religion News Current News Items