State Duma to Exclude Orthodox Church from Foreign Agent Roster

admin | 11 July 2012

Alexander Sidyakin

MOSCOW, JULY 10 – RAPSI. State Duma deputies proposed to withdraw religious nonprofit organizations from United Russia’s initiative on the status of noncommercial organizations, Alexander Sidyakin, one of the law’s co-sponsors, told Izvestia newspaper.

A nonprofit organization financed from abroad and involved in political activity in Russia is to be classed as a foreign agent.

According to this definition, even the Russian Orthodox Church is a foreign agent: it receives donations from abroad and is involved in political activity in Russia.

Representatives of the church have submitted their amendments for the second reading which is expected to be combined with the third reading on July 13.

“We propose that there should be some provisions stating that religious organizations are not subject to this status, so as to prevent the church from being accused of using its influence in politics,” archpriest Georgy Roshchin said. He did not specify the provisions.

According to the head of the State Duma Committee on NGOs Yaroslav Nilov, the amendments to the second reading will be discussed on July 10, but they have yet to be finalized.

Source: Russian Legal Information Agency

Since you are here…

…we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong.

Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable.

For example, 5 euros a month is it a lot or little? A cup of coffee? It is not that much for a family budget, but it is a significant amount for Pravmir.

If everyone reading Pravmir could donate 5 euros a month, they would contribute greatly to our ability to spread the word of Christ, Orthodoxy, life's purpose, family and society.