http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/...ines-for-sharing-their-faith/390816.htmlMissionaries Face Fines for Sharing Their Faith
03 December 2009
By Alexander Bratersky
Ordinary believers face fines for sharing their faith with strangers in the metro or on the street under amendments drafted by the Justice Ministry that are stirring worries among Protestant groups about a clampdown on religious freedom.
Under the proposed changes to the Law on Religious Activity, only leaders of registered religious groups and their officially authorized missionaries would be allowed to pass out religious literature, preach and talk about their faith in public, according to a draft of the amendments published in Kommersant on Wednesday.
Anyone else who shares their faith would face a fine of 2,000 rubles to 5,000 rubles ($65 to $170) for individuals and 5,000 rubles to 7,000 rubles ($170 to $230) for legal entities.
later on in the article, it notes:
Russian Orthodox officials offered no comment about any church role in the bill, but they welcomed it as a way to prevent people from masquerading as Orthodox priests.
“A person might be dressed as an Orthodox priest but be a con artist,” said Vsevolod Chaplin, head of the department for church and society affairs in the Moscow Patriarchate.
“Every missionary activity should be within the framework of law,” he said in a telephone interview. “People should have the right to know who a priest represents.”
The bill defines missionary work for the first time as an “activity among nonbelievers and nonmembers of a religious organization aimed at bringing them into the religious organization.”
