Religious Groups Outlawed in Unrecognized Republics of Eastern Ukraine

A new law in the Russian Separatist controlled “Lugansk People’s Republic” has many churches and church leaders worried. On February 2nd the unrecognized government approved a law that requires all “religious groups” to register with the government. According to the minister of religious affairs a religious group is any group of 5 or more people who engage in religious activities together and are not recognized by the government.

“Religious groups are intentionally banned by us…. We deliberately excluded the concepts of religious groups from the law (on freedom of conscience), which is necessary for clearly recognizing the confessional attitude of certain organizations.” ¹⁾http://lug-info.com/news/one/prinyatyi-narodnym-sovetom-zakon-o-religii-zapretil-deyatelnost-religioznykh-grupp-v-lnr-32220

Earlier last year the republic completely banned all activities of the Watchtower Society (Jehovah’s Witnesses), which caught the attention of many. Now many are worried that a similar fate may await, Protestants, Catholics, and other faiths that are not exactly in line with the official faith of the Lugansk People’s Republic, which is the Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarch.

The law that was enacted on February 2nd 2018 gives religious groups 3 months to register with the government authorities. Unfortunately the authorities won’t accept previous registration under Ukrainian government that some churches may have already had. According to the government, registration is necessary to ensure that no religions are promoting extremism or terrorism. They see no problem with the government having a degree of control over religious communities.

Concerning the government’s control over religion Andrei Litzoev -head of the department of religious and spiritual affairs, and minister of culture, sport, and youth stated:

“It is profoundly mistaken to think that religion is separate from the state. In fact, the state helps to maintain stability in the religious sphere, strengthen interfaith harmony and tolerance in society, and shape the immunity of our residents to the ideology of religious extremism and radicalism in all forms and manifestations. After all, if we do not control these issues, if we will not delve into the affairs of religious organizations, we’ll see new extremist, and terrorist religious movements. It is necessary to clearly understand the reason for this is the security of the state.” ²⁾http://lug-info.com/comments/one/andrei-litsoev-gluboko-oshibochno-mnenie-o-tom-chto-religiya-daleka-ot-gosudarstva-609?yn

Talking with people from this area I found out that registering a religious organization is no easy task.

1. Every church registered must have its own facility officially in the name of the church. (This will eliminate any church from registering who can’t afford its own building, or legally has the building in another name.)
2. The church constitution must be signed by 20 people who are considered legally responsible for the church. They must all be members of the church and they must all be officially registered as living near the church.
3. The church must have an additional 30 people sign the constitution who are regular church members and who also are officially registered as living in the area of the church. (It will be near impossible for small churches to come up with these kinds of numbers!)
4. The church must submit its doctrinal statement for a review by the government’s “theological experts.” (This is the part that worries many church leaders. No one really knows who exactly in the government will be reviewing the doctrinal statements and on what basis they will accept or reject their doctrinal statements).

Concerning the requirement for churches to have their doctrinal statements examined by government “experts” Dmitry Sidorov, the executive minister of culture explained:

“Examination of the doctrine is necessary in order for us to have a rigid filter mechanism for organizations in order to prevent the registration of those organizations that have a risk of becoming extremist or radical, or who have strayed from their stated confessions.” ³⁾http://lug-info.com/news/one/religioznye-obedineniya-obyazany-nachat-registratsiyu-v-techenie-trekh-mesyatsev-32222