DAll Scientology organizations based in the United States are considered undesirable in Russia. Last month, the Prosecutor General’s Office declared undesirable religious associations from Ukraine and Latvia
The building of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation
The Prosecutor General’s Office has recognized the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises International (WISE) and the Ron Hubbard Library from the United States as undesirable in Russia, according to the Telegram channel of the supervisory authority.
“The Ron Hubbard Library” (L. Ron Hubbard Library) also uses the name “Church of Spiritual Technology”(Church of Spiritual Technology, CST), the ministry said in a statement.
“The activities of these religious corporations pose a threat to the security of the Russian Federation,” the agency states, noting that the decision to declare the organizations undesirable was made after studying the materials received.
These organizations will be included in the list of foreign and international non-governmental organizations compiled by the Ministry of Justice, whose activities are recognized as undesirable on the territory of Russia.
WISE calls itself a non-profit international association on its website. It was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Los Angeles. The members of the organization— entrepreneurs and business owners— work in 131 countries of the world, they use Hubbard’s administrative technology in their companies. The organization calls the goal of building an “ethical, reasonable and prosperous civilization”.
CST is a California-based non-profit religious corporation. According to the information provided on the Scientology website, the organization was founded in 1982 “to preserve and archive the sacred writings of Scientology” and make them accessible to everyone. CST also owns the copyrights to Hubbard’s works, issues licenses for their use and collects royalties from the lectures and books of the founder of the doctrine.
In Russia, the Scientology Church of Moscow was registered as a religious organization in 1994. In various regions of the country, Hubbard’s books and pamphlets were recognized as extremist by court decisions.
In November 2015, the Scientology Church of Moscow was liquidated by the decision of the Moscow City Court. At the same time, in August 2015, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case after hidden video cameras and listening devices were found in the building of the Church of Scientology in Moscow.
The organization “Scientology Center” in St. Petersburg was liquidated by the city court in 2007. In the summer of 2016, the FSB suspected the Scientology Church of St. Petersburg of illegal entrepreneurship without registration. A criminal case was opened against Scientologists. The FSB then reported that the illegal business was “associated with the extraction of profit on a particularly large scale”.
In 2018, the FSB opened a criminal case against one of the leaders of the church in St. Petersburg on suspicion of legalizing funds obtained by criminal means.
The Church of Scientology was founded by Ron Hubbard in the USA in the middle of the XX century. In many states, the activities of Scientologists are prohibited. In Russia, individual Scientology centers were repeatedly closed, their literature was banned, and some of Hubbard’s lectures were recognized in Russia as extremist materials.
In mid-August, the Prosecutor General’s Office declared undesirable the non-governmental organization International Partnership for Human Rights, which cooperated in Russia with the information and analytical center “Sova”, included in the list of foreign agents.
At the end of the same month, the Prosecutor General’s Office recognized four foreign religious organizations as undesirable in Russia: the international Christian movement “New Generation” (Latvia), Evangēlisko kristie šu baznīca« Jaunā Paaudze» (Evangelical Christian Church “New Generation”, Latvia), the Spiritual Administration of the Evangelical Christians of Ukraine Christian Churches& laquo;New Generation & raquo; (spiritual Administration of Evangelical Christians of the Ukrainian Christian Church & laquo; New Generation», Ukraine) and Spiritual Navchalny Mortgage of the National Bible College «New Generation & raquo; (spiritual educational institution & laquo;International Bible College & laquo; New Generation», Ukraine).
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