A draft law to this effect was submitted to the Duma and allows for amendments to the current law "On freedom of conscience." It points to a stricter monitoring of foreign financing to immediately identify cases of extremism and terrorism. The organizations will be forced to submit financial reports to the Ministry of Justice.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The Russian Ministry of Justice wants the go ahead to be able to carry out economic and financial inspections of religious organizations that receive funds from abroad. This initiative is contained in a bill submitted to the Duma and that wants to amend the law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations" and a series of other norms. The document would also force religious organizations to submit financial reports to the Ministry of Justice, should they receive funding from foreign organizations or foreign nationals.

As reported by "Religia i Pravo" website citing the explanatory note accompanying the document submitted to the Duma, the government's initiative is motivated by the need to comply with the directives of the Russian president, dated May 2014, "on the development of a special mechanism to monitor the financial and economic activity of religious organizations and enable the timely discovery (and the consequent adequate response) of possible involvement in extremist activities or terrorism, as well as other violations of Russian law".
 
For many, it is a tool to tighten the oversight of funding of religious associations on the basis of the same principle of the law that put the NGOs financed from abroad under the constant pressure of inspections and that forces them to register in Russia with the Soviet-styled label of "foreign agents".

The bill, however, reduces cases in which surprise inspections can be carried out on religious organizations from five to three: expiration of deadline, granted to correct identified illegalities; if an authorized government agency has received information on indicators of extremism or terrorism in the activities of a religious organization; if the President of the Russian Federation or the government ordered the inspection, based on the request of a prosecutor.

It is unclear how the law will apply to the Orthodox Church, which receives many donations from the faithful abroad.

Meanwhile, on May 8, the Ministry of Justice sent notices of violation of the law to three religious organizations, on the basis of surveys conducted this year. Five organizations were subjected to inspection: Central Conference of the Russian United Methodist Church,; the Kuban Association Evangelical Christians; Communion of Evangelical Churches 'Word of Life'; the European Russia Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Association of Evangelical Christians 'Kingdom of God'. The first three received separate notices to carry out a "correction of violations", no later than May 29, June 23 and July 27, of face fines of up to 4,000 rubles (about 70 euro). (N.A.)

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