Russia asks: To whom should historic religious property belong?
By Geraldine Fagan
As current cases involving the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) and Old Believers, Baptists and Autonomous Orthodox show, allocating historical worship property can prove a minefield for the state authorities, Forum 18 News Service notes.
Officials “must think of the consequences of hasty or wrong decisions” when transferring historical worship property from their possession, Mikhail Odintsov, the top official dealing with religious issues at the office of Russia’s Human Rights Ombudsman, remarked to Forum 18 on 26 February. “It should be remembered that people are on the receiving end.”
While calls for the return of historic property began in the dying years of the Soviet Union, it is still one of the most troublesome issues for religious communities. A 23 April 1993 presidential decree instructed the government “to carry out the gradual transfer of houses of worship, religious buildings, their associated territory and other items of religious significance from federal ownership to the ownership of or usage by religious organisations.” It did not set a deadline, however, nor extend to municipal, regional or already privatised property (see F18News 30 August 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=639).
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http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1263
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