MOSCOW, July 25 (Itar-Tass) -- A group of Russian writers, artists and actors from popular-patriotic forces has appealed to Russian President Boris Yeltsin with a collective letter. The letter's text was received by Itar-Tass today from the Union of Russian Writers. They think "the hasty decision" of the president "may have grave consequences and even more complicate the catastrophic condition of the nation's moral health." A priority position of traditional religions and their legal advantages over "non-traditional" religious and pseudo-religious communities and sects comes from the interests of preservation and existence of "the historical Russian state," the letter says.

It stresses the "devastating effect" of new religious communities which "are sometimes directly related to subversive activities of Western and overseas secret services and enemies which oppose the idea of Russian indivisibility from the very start."

The letter gives a rather sharp estimation of appeals of "the Pope of Rome, human rights organisations of Europe and America, as well as presidents and politicians of all levels." They say these people "have their political gains" and we have "a common care for the benefit and moral health of Russian people."

The 35 persons who signed the letter include writers Mikhail Alekseyev, Dmitriy Balashov, Leonid Borodin, Vasiliy Belov, Valeriy Ganichev, Vladimir Krupin, Feliks Kuznetsov, Stanislav Kunyayev, Viktor Likhonosov, Valentin Rasputin, Viktor Rozov, artists Ilya Glazunov, Vyacheslav Klykov, Valentin Sidorov, composer Georgiy Sviridov, actresses Tatyana Doronina, Nataliya Varley, actor Nikolay Burlyayev and academician Igor Shafarevich.

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Johnson's Russia List

#1094

29 July 1997

djohnson@cdi.org