The Russian State is preparing a reform that would aim at reinforcing its control over religious communities and combating “foreign religious expansion”. Leaks of the planned reform have so far only appeared in the press. The story has also been carried by the “France-presse” agency. According to the Russian daily Vedomosti, the Minister of Justice has drawn up a report and a series of proposals aimed at “toughening up the procedure for the issuing of visas to missionaries and simplifying those relating to the suppression of religious organizations”. These measures the paper claims were presented to the Russian Security Council in October. A spokesman of the Ministry of Justice told the France-presse agency that “it is a secret report. We don’t understand how the news could have been leaked to the media”. And he gave his assurance that the proposed measures intend “to improve some procedures, especially those relating to the issuing of visas”. According to the Russian paper, the report denounces a “foreign religious expansion” in Russia where the number of religious movements has grown from 20 to 69 in the space of a decade. The Ministry of Justice would like to have the right to suppress a religious community if its members have been found guilty of extremist acts more than twice in twelve months.
