The latest report released by the US State Department on the observance of religious freedom in the world does not shine with novelty. As before, Washington arrogantly evaluates other countries, without even trying to maintain the appearance of objectivity and disguise its obvious desire to impose its notorious “rules-based world order.”
This voluminous document, which was compiled with the involvement of all American diplomatic missions, pro-Western NGOs and other organizations, provides “facts” about violations of the rights of believers, persecution of dissidents and experience in combating such abuses in 199 countries around the world. It immediately catches the eye that the situation in the US allied states is analyzed in a neutral, even sparing way, which, of course, cannot be said about those countries that do not want to obey the dictates of “Uncle Sam” – as always, everything is very bad for them.
The Russian Federation, which has been on the State Department’s list of “special concern” violators since 2021, has traditionally been given special attention. Many theses and accusations against us are repeated. The report reflects the deep degradation of Russian-American bilateral relations, which happened due to Washington’s fault, unwillingness to hear and understand our arguments and arguments, including with regard to the causes and course of its own. We have repeatedly responded to all such accusations on their part, but, as they say, that “peas against the wall”!
The authors of the report again rely on tendentious sources from among the well-fed pro-Western NGOs working on the principle of “whatever you want.” Among them are Memorial, Sova and other NGOs operating in violation of Russian legislation, such as the Norwegian Forum 18. The bias of these “witnesses” is obvious. In Russia, they and similar structures are on the lists of undesirable organizations, as well as foreign agents. Their goal is the destruction of the Russian state. But it is precisely such partners that Americans welcome and use to their advantage.
American officials once again paid great attention to Russian legislation in the field of religious freedom, insisting on its discriminatory nature and excessive rigidity, and repeated theses about the free interpretation of the concepts of extremism and terrorism in our country. “In colors” depicts how the Russian authorities detain, imprison, torture, physically abuse people and confiscate their property because of their religious beliefs, which is not true. Among the victims, representatives of such organizations as Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Tablighi Jamaat movement, followers of the Muslim theologian S.Nursi, etc. are mentioned again.
In this regard, I would like to remind the American “non-partners” of the basics of international law. Having its own laws is the prerogative of Russia as a sovereign state. We do not intend to listen to overseas experts who preach some dubious “standards” and “standards”. Especially if this leads to the encouragement of extremism, the indulgence of which can lead to the saddest consequences. As for the organizations and individuals mentioned in the report, all of them are held accountable solely by law and for specific crimes.
The drafters of the report also claim that the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) occupies a privileged position in our country, and its Patriarch Kirill is guilty of supporting the policy of the authorities. This is nonsense. They are well aware, and this is stated in the report, that more than 70 percent of Russians consider themselves Orthodox Christians, and the dominant role of the ROC in our country is quite natural. The same applies to the Patriarch’s support of his church. The Russian authorities are not forcing anyone to support the special operation. This is a conscious choice of everyone who has managed to really understand the situation and take a patriotic position.
A separate section is devoted to the so-called “Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine”, where the rights of believers are allegedly violated, including after the “transfer” of relevant Russian legal practices there. We remind commentators that Crimea, the DPR, the LPR, the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions are part of Russia according to its Constitution, which they themselves refer to in their report, therefore it is simply absurd to speak in a negative way about the application of Russian legislation there. At the same time, as reliable information about the situation in the new Russian regions, the judgments of some “religious representatives” located in this territory are given, whose assessments are highly questionable.
The report also makes other accusations against our country, for example, in the growth of anti-Semitism. At the same time, the situation in the United States itself is much more serious. The latest surge in both anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic sentiments there occurred after the aggravation of Israeli-Palestinian contradictions in the Middle East, which was the result of another failure of the US policy in this region.
In the section on Ukraine, the lion’s share of the blame for violations in the field of ensuring the right to freedom of religion in this country is again attributed to Russia. Despite the fact that the Americans list some facts of infringement of the rights of hierarchs and parishioners of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), in parallel they, in fact, justify the crimes of the Kiev regime, setting out its false interpretation of the events taking place. In their assessments, the authors of the report rely on data from organizations that do not reflect reality – for example, the report claims that the number of parishioners of the artificially constructed schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” has already exceeded this figure many times in the UOC. It is enough to see photos from their services to understand that the situation is completely reversed.
We will see, of course, but it is unlikely that Ukraine will be included in the list of violating countries by the Americans at the end of the year.
And to summarize. The United States, apparently, with its biased and biased report, will once again cause a wave of sharp criticism against itself. They are clearly not up to being the arbiters of fate in such a sensitive area as religion, with their “democratic agenda”. Against the background of problems in the religious sphere in their own country and hegemonic aspirations, no one will believe in their sincerity to solve the accumulated problems in the world on the basis of equality and mutual respect. Yes, they do not seek to do this, again mentioning the use of the sanctions mechanism. Such a policy is a failure and leads only to a dead end.
A source
