Reports and Analyses

SOVA Center for Information and Analysis presents its sixth annual report on the freedom of conscience in the Russian Federation.

Alexander Verkhovsky, editor

This is the first report by the SOVA center on this subject that does not cover the entire year. The subject of “inappropriate anti-extremism” was previously a part of our quarterly reports. However, in 2010 the report structure has changed: we have published a half-year report on radical nationalism and related issues, while devoting the present report specifically to issues related to the excessive use of anti-extremist measures. Therefore, here we review events and trends dating from January through June of 2010. The events of July through early September are referenced as necessary to reflect the development of the observed trends.

We publish a commentary Art curators' verdict not isolated instance – this is a system made by Alexander Verkhovsky for Forum 18 News Service http://www.forum18.org.

The SOVA Center for Information and Analysis presents its fourth annual report on the freedom of conscience in the Russian Federation. The goal of this report is to identify major trends and problems in this sphere, thus only the most significant and typical incidents are mentioned in this analysis.

The SOVA Center for Information and Analysis presents its third annual report on the freedom of conscience in the Russian Federation. The goal of this report is to identify major trends and problems in this sphere, thus only the most significant and typical incidents are mentioned in this analysis.

The SOVA Center for Information and Analysis presents its second annual report on the freedom of conscience in the Russian Federation. The goal of this report is to identify major trends and problems in this sphere, thus only the most significant and typical incidents are mentioned in this analysis. Events that occurred prior to 2007 were presented in the previous report; therefore this report only contains further updates of earlier developments.

We publish on our web-site the shortened version of paper presented on the seminar "Islam and Orthodoxy: Confrontation, Cohabitation, and Comparison" in Vienna, 12-13 March 2007

The report is based on the findings of SOVA Center's monitoring. This information is presented in its entirety in Religion in a Secular Society section (http://religion.sova-center.ru), including references to media and Web resources. We only give references here which are not indicated in the section above.
Rather than address each and every issue relevant to the activity of religious associations, this paper focuses on issues involved in exercising one's freedom of conscience. Freedom of conscience must be protected by government, so we focus on government practices; however, some problems may be caused by non-state actors. We also understand that the exercise of one's freedom of conscience, just as any other right or liberty, may result in various conflicts. Some of such conflict situations will be described in the paper.
Russia has not yet developed a tradition of reporting on the freedom of conscience; SOVA Center also undertakes this work for the fist time, and we do not claim to be providing exhaustive coverage or unquestionable accuracy of interpretations. We will appreciate any criticism, additions, or corrections.

This article was originally written in early September 2005 and publushed in Russian in the book "The Price of the Hatred". The original version was translated into English in February 2006 without changes, except for some footnotes.

This article is focused on legal issues related to Hizb ut-Tahrir propaganda, that'a why it is published in Nationalism and Xenophobia part of our web-site.