MOSCOW, August 8 (Itar-Tass) -- The activity of many foreign religious organisations in Russia has entailed breaches of law and constitutional rights of citizens, which led the institution of criminal proceedings in a number of cases, according to a ranking Russian prosecutor.

Prosecutor Viktor Navarnov, who is in charge of supervision over compliance with the laws on inter-ethnic relations, said in an exclusive interview with Itar-Tass today that his division of the Office of the Procurator General of the Russian Federation had information about a serious threat to the state and society posed by the spread in Russian territory of non-traditional religious associations (totalitarian sects) which foster asocial behaviour, reject constitutional duties and place at risk their adepts' moral, psychic and physical normalcy.

By encouraging rifts in the spiritual sphere on the basis of different religious beliefs, the totalitarian sects seek to undermine the spiritual and moral integrity of society which has taken shape over centuries in the history of the Orthodox Christian Russia, Navarnov said.

Navarnov cited competent experts as saying that the totalitarian sects were seeking to change in full the system of moral values of their adepts through open manipulation of their consciousness with the help of sermons, rituals and other tools.

An analysis of videotapes and literature has revealed that they were designed to revamp the adepts' social and economic orientations and make them completely committed to a specific religious sect through purposeful brainwashing by means of rationalistic and emotionally-stressful impact.

As a result of research conducted by experts it was established that the involvement of young people with the activity of asocial religious groups led to the destruction of family relations, the slow-down in their psychic and social development, and the deformation of their individuality structure, which required special psychological and social correction.

The Office of the Procurator General has information that 37 religious organisations are active without due registration that is conditions of conspiracy, in the Volgograd region alone. These profit-seeking organisations include The White Fraternity, Bahai, The Centre of the World, and The Black Moon organisations. All of them are characterised by a rigid internal hierarchy, complete submission of the rank-and-file members to the superiors and a total control over the private life of the followers.

The Church of Scientology, for example, resorts to forbidden dianetic manipulative procedures, involving penetration into the subconscious, which creates conditions in which harm can be done to people's moral, psychic and physical health.

The Jehovah's Witnesses have established 144 communities in European Russia.

Numerous statements addressed to the law- enforcement bodies by citizens whose relatives are members of these sects testify that the community leaders deceitfully entice citizens to join the sect and then fan hatred of traditional religions, turn them into psychic zombies, forbid them to do their constitutional duty by defending the country and serving in the Armed Forces, break up families.

Among the ideas spread by the Jehovah's Witnesses and posing a threat to society is the doctrine of the impending end of the world which is widely used both to attract new members and to intimidate those who have doubts and thus make them stay in the sect.

The teaching about an impending global catastrophe is used to generate mass psychosis, it is extremely amoral, Navarnov said. The Jehovah's Witnesses organisation has repeatedly predicted the end of the world, and expert psychologists believe that an "end-of-the- world" situation can be "provoked" by the sect if it follows in the steps of the AUM Shinrikyo cult and makes use of mass destruction weapons for the purpose.

Untold victims could result from such an attempt, Navarnov said.

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Johnson's Russia List

#1116

12 August 1997

djohnson@cdi.org