MOSCOW, July 18 (Interfax) -- Russian President Boris Yeltsin is likely to sign a controversial bill on religious freedom passed by both houses of parliament, an influential lawyer close to Kremlin circles told Interfax Friday. However, "There are some things that could be quickly edited" in the bill, "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations," he said. These "editing errors could be easily removed at the final stage of work on the bill."

Yeltsin has until July 21 to decide whether to sign the bill. He described as absurd the claims by some politicians in Russia and abroad that the law discriminates against a number of religious groups, Catholics in particular. "On the one hand, such claims are the result of delusion, on the other, intentional lies meant to aggravate the political atmosphere in and around Russia," the legal expert said. He said the bill offers "equal rights to all creeds on Russian territory, except inhuman, often quite doubtful movements artificially imposed from abroad."

He regretted the letter Pope John Paul II sent to Yeltsin which reportedly voices concern about the future of the Catholic church in Russia if the president signs the bill. "Evidently the pope was misled by the same circles that are now trying to play the religious card for their own purely political purposes," he said.

As for the U.S. Senate, which threatened to cut down on economic aid to Russia in the event of signing the bill, the lawyer said "such steps lie beyond the limits of boorishness." If it had not been "such a delicate and sensitive matter as the freedom of conscience and religion," he would have "recommended the president sign the bill simply to respond to brazen foreign interference in purely Russian affairs," he said.

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Johnson's Russia List

#1071

22 July 1997

djohnson@cdi.org