14.03.09

The Russian Ministry of Justice intends to review the federal law provisions governing missionary activity.

"We are going to introduce amendments to the Federal Law on Freedom of Conscience, and to begin with, we shall define the term of missionary activity, because our laws have failed to provide such definition so far," Sergey Melushkin, the head of non-commercial organizations department of the Russian Ministry of Justice, said Thursday at the State Duma Hearings.

According to him, the law shall stipulate conditions of missionary activity and rules of administrative liability for unlawful missionary outreach.

The draft law will be presented to the Government no later than December 2009. Meanwhile, it would be addressed at public hearings for constructive comments, Melushkin said.

He reminded that the Ministry of Justice had been recently granted new powers, including the right to conduct the state theological inspection, and it was going to establish the relevant expert council. Melushkin thinks that similar councils are needed in all regions of Russia.

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Source: Interfax