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INTRUSIVE STATE CHECK-UPS CONCERN RUSSIAN CHURCH LEADERS

In a throwback to the Soviet era, a local justice department in southeastern Russia’s Samara region is asking religious organizations to divulge personal information on all of their members, a local independent television station reported recently.
“Everyone knows that the aim of the request was to get the names of parishioners in order to put pressure on them later,” said Vasili Lyashevsky, a regional Pentecostal leader who was interviewed on the broadcast.

He contends that the request is part of the government’s plan to increase control of independent media and social organizations in Russia. “Many people just go along with it,” he said, citing similar requests by justice departments in the regions of Irkutsk, Perm, Tambov, Udmurtia and Yekaterinburg.
The Catholic priest in Samara said he refused to give the names, ages and other details of his parishioners. Although a justice department official appeared in a Samara television program to defend the move, the justice department official in charge of registration denied the practice.

From the news flow of Intercessors Network

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Lars Widerberg