MINORITY RELIGIONS IN THE URALS - WALK SOFTLY AND YOU WILL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 YEKATERINBURG 000056

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SOCI RS
SUBJECT: MINORITY RELIGIONS IN THE URALS - WALK SOFTLY AND YOU WILL
NOT BE HARASSED

REF: MOSCOW 1597


1. Sensitive But Unclassified. Not for internet distribution.


2. (U) Summary: In recent weeks, consulate officers have met
with representatives of three "minority" religions operating in
the Urals: Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Evangelical
Lutherans. Jehovah's Witnesses appear to experience the most
difficulties in carrying out their activities, some of which do
not comply with Russian regulations. End Summary.

Adaptable Mormons Report No Major Difficulties
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3. (SBU) On June 23, we met with the outgoing president of the
Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints
(LDS) in the Urals, Steven Allen. His district matches our
consular district almost exactly. For two years he has traveled
throughout the district and has been pleasantly surprised by the
friendliness and open-mindedness of the local population. There
are currently 50 missionaries in the Urals, not all U.S.
citizens. They are here on three-month religious visas which
must be regularly renewed. LDS has parishes in Perm and in Ufa.
They are renovating a building in Yekaterinburg to be their
Urals headquarters.


4. (SBU) LDS finds regulations governing real estate deals
problematic. LDS used to have a nice facility in Tyumen but the
lease was not renewed and the space was taken over by Lukoil.
Six years ago LDS obtained permission to lease space in Samara,
completed a renovation, but was never allowed to hold meetings
there. More recently, they experienced difficulty securing
space to hold a planning meeting for a group of 600. Ten years
ago LDS held a similar meeting here in the Urals Cultural Center
(a city owned facility). This year LDS signed a contract with
the same facility and paid in advance, but was told two weeks
before the meeting that a government facility could not host a
religious event.


5. (SBU) LDS promotes its faith through worship services,
thematic religious and cultural events, and dissemination of
printed materials, which are all published abroad, either in
Germany or the U.S. English language training is one of the
Church's major activities. The classes are limited to
conversation, however, since use of formal teaching methods by
people not licensed to be teachers is illegal. Other than
difficulties locating and keeping premises, Allen said LDS has
not experienced any harassment by locals or government. Allen
told us that LDS is very careful to keep its activities within
Russian law and regulation, and maintains good relations with
local authorities.

Jehovah's Witnesses - We'll Do It Our Way
--------------

6. (SBU) On July 9, Sergey Tanzura, Jehovah's Witnesses (JW)
public relations, and Yegiazar Chernikov, JW lawyer, briefed
consulate personnel about JW activities in the region and
obstacles faced by the group. JW started activities in
Yekaterinburg in 1994. There are currently forty-two
congregations in Sverdlovsk oblast. Nine of them, with a total
of about 1,000 members, are located in Yekaterinburg. They hold
weekly gatherings to study the Bible and religious principles
outlined in the magazine "Storozhevaya Bashnya" (The
Watchtower),published by JW international. The magazine has
been deemed "extremist" by local law enforcement officials in
the town of Asbest, a charge that JW has appealed. JW also
promotes its ideas by addressing people in the street or going
from door to door with copies of Storozhevaya Bashnya. [Note:
Although we have not been able to find any limitations on
door-to-door methods of promoting a religion, distribution of
"extremist" literature is illegal. End note.]


7. (SBU) Tanzura recounted the problems JW has experienced in
Russia since 2002 when the federal law on extremism was adopted.
According to Tanzura, because the law lacks a clear definition
of extremism, it has been used by prosecutors to investigate
minority religions. Tanzura told us that FSB officers
interrupted a weekly meeting of JW on May 24 in Asbest, a
monocity about 70 km northeast of Yekaterinburg, demanding
identification documents from all present (see reftel). JW
members asked to leave but were not allowed to do so until all
documents were checked and names were recorded by the FSB. JW
recognizes the right of law enforcement officials to ask for
personal identification; they insist, however, that it is
illegal to record names or photograph the individuals whose
documents are checked. The May 24 meeting was held in a
hairdresser's shop leased by JW during off hours. Government
officials have told us there may be a question of whether public
meetings can be held in a space licensed for other purposes.
Our visitors told us that JW lawyers typically file suits
alleging illegal detention in circumstances such as these. They

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have difficulties getting courts to hear the cases, however.
None of JW's cases has made it to the level of the Russian
Supreme Court, but they have had some success with the European
Court of Human Rights.


8. (U) JW press releases and reftel mention the placement of a
15-year-old boy in a children's rehabilitation facility as a
result of the interruption of the Asbest meeting. As JW, NGO
contacts, and government officials told us, the boy's parents
were out of town at the time and could not be reached by
authorities. They had not left a power of attorney or any other
documents designating guardians in their absence. The boy was
kept in the facility until his parents, who were informed of
their son's placement in the facility, returned. The family is
now reunited.


9. (U) JW press releases also implied that a woman miscarried as
a result of police actions on May 24. We sought clarification
from both JW and authorities. The woman came to the militia
station on her own volition on May 26, with about 20 other JW
members, to complain about militia actions on May 24. She
provided a statement, provided her contact details, and left the
station. The militia called her on May 27 and asked her to give
further details about the incident and "explain her reasons for
participating in the gathering." She returned home the same day
and did not miscarry until May 31. The JW representatives with
whom we spoke could not link her visit to the militia station
with the miscarriage and made no allegations of mistreatment
such as threats or physical force.

Lutherans Hoping for Restitution
--------------

10. (SBU) In a meeting at the consulate on July 13, pastor Roman
Alfredovich Gaideman said that his 43-member congregation of
Evangelical Lutherans (EL) has not faced harassment by
authorities similar to the experiences of JW. According to
Gaideman, Lutheranism has been practiced in this region since
the arrival of Germans working in mining and metallurgy in the
1700s and is considered one of Russia's traditional religions, a
"status" that he believes affords some protection. [Note: we
were unable to find any mention of "traditional religions" in
the Law on Religious Freedom. Some commentators hold that
religions that have been present on the territory of Russia for
over 50 years qualify as traditional. End note.] In addition,
Gaideman believes that due to its small size in Yekaterinburg,
the EL church poses no threat to the Russian Orthodox Church
(ROC).


11. (SBU) Gaideman, who joined the Lutheran church here in 1994,
noted that it is very difficult to register a religious
organization today. Gaideman criticized the government's
approach of maintaining that church and state are separate but
at the same time putting pressure on businesses to pay for new
ROC churches. He recounted difficulties he encountered when
attempting to get restitution for Lutheran properties seized and
destroyed in the 1940s. He said he would have settled simply
for use of space in the building currently occupying the site of
the former church, but has not been successful. According to
Gaideman, the official reasoning is that since the pre-1940
building no longer exists, there is nothing to return and no
basis for a claim. The Lutherans do not have any of the
original documentation related to the church, such as a property
deed.

Comment
--------------

12. (SBU) The LDS experience in the Urals demonstrates that it
is possible to practice a minority religion without harassment
or interference by authorities. In contrast, our JW visitors
convey the impression that they are trying to prove a point,
appealing to the European Court of Human Rights to expose the
restrictions imposed upon them by Russian regulations. If what
they told us face-to-face was accurate, however, their press
releases seem exaggerated. Though their defiant position draws
unwanted attention from the authorities, JW leaders do not
intend to adapt their methods of practicing their faith.
SANDUSKY