Chess Playing: Is Putin surpassing Karpov in Orthodox-Catholic relations in Russia?

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Please Mr. Moderator, do not delete this post. I pasted here an email I received from Inside The Vatican Magazine, of which I am a subscriber. There is no copyright notice included, and I am sure the Editor would not oppose its posting here.

"Inside the Vatican News April 24 2002

Whay Was Mazur Expelled? What Next?

compiled by Inside the Vatican staff

An investigation into the reasons for the recent explusion from Russia of a Catholic bishop and priest Note: The material below is from Keston College, a research group which monitors religious freedom in communist and post-communist countries. On a March trip to Russia, I met with one of the authors of these reports, Geraldine Fagan, and I have known Felix Corley for many years (he has been a contributor to "Inside the Vatican"). I was impressed by Fagan's professionalism and objectivity, and so feel confident that the reports re-published here are balanced and contain accurate information -- The Editor, Inside the Vatican ---------- KESTON NEWS SERVICE, 24 April 2002

I. RUSSIA: WHY WAS CATHOLIC BISHOP EXPELLED?

by Geraldine Fagan and Felix Corley, Keston News Service

Varied responses from the Russian state authorities continue to obscure the reasons for the annulment on 19 April of Bishop Jerzy Mazur's valid visa when he tried to return to his Irkutsk-based diocese from his native Poland.

In an interview broadcast by Vatican Radio on 23 April, the bishop stated that while at Moscow's Sheremyetevo-2 airport he was at no stage given a reason for the actions being taken against him. According to a 20 April Vatican news report, however, "secretary to the Holy See's representative to the Russian Federation, Fr Tomasz Grysa, was told by a border police official that Polish citizen Jerzy Mazur was on the list of persons no longer allowed to enter the Russian Federation."

An official at the press centre of the Federal Borderguard Service was bewildered that Keston should choose on 22 April to query the incident with his organisation. Preferring to remain anonymous, he explained that the Borderguard Service did not have the authority to annul visas: "If someone has a visa, we let them in, if not, then we don't." The official expressed doubt as to the reliability of reports that his organisation had annulled Bishop Mazur's visa, and declared that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was the body empowered to take such action.

Also contacted by Keston on 22 April, Vladimir Ashurkov of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Press and Information Department regretted that he was unable to provide any information concerning Bishop Mazur's situation, since, he said, he had not been issued with any. He declined to confirm even whether his ministry was the organ which dealt with such issues. On 23 April Russian news agency Interfax reported Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Aleksandr Yakovenko as saying that Bishop Mazur was refused entry to Russia "strictly in accordance with Article 27 of the 1996 Russian Federation law on the procedure for entering and leaving the country." (The four provisions of this article cite the following grounds for refusal of entry into Russia: state security considerations, a criminal record, absence of documentation required to obtain a visa and lack of proof of non-infection with the HIV virus.)

To date, the only official statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs relating to Bishop Mazur was issued on 27 February. It refers to the ministry's receipt of appeals from Sakhalin residents troubled by the inclusion of the geographical name "Karafuto" in Bishop Mazur's title, since this relates to the period 1905-45 when the south of the island was Japanese territory. The ministry regards the bishop's use of this title as "an unfriendly act and interference in the internal affairs of Russian Federation", announces the statement, and considers explanations given to the press by the Catholic Church at parish level to be "unconvincing and insufficient".

Speaking by telephone on 23 April, a senior Vatican official told Keston that the Holy See had notified the Russian authorities in writing last week about its decision to adopt the geographical term "South Sakhalin" in place of the disputed "Karafuto". According to the official, this change was made "at the request of many individuals and the Russian government." He added, however, that the old Japanese name had been employed by the Vatican as a mere formality and had not borne any implication about the area's sovereignty: "The Vatican never enters into questions of territory."

In response to Keston's continued enquiries on 22 April, a spokesman at the public relations centre of the FSB (the former KGB) said that the FSB had "nothing to do with visas". When Keston referred to the explanation reportedly given to nuncio secretary Grysa that Bishop Mazur was on a list of people denied entry to the Russian Federation, the official replied, "We do not draw up such lists." He recommended that Keston contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, since, he maintained, this was the responsible organ.

In recent days there have been several high-level condemnations of the measures taken against Bishop Mazur and requests to the Russian authorities for an explanation. On 20 April a statement issued by the Holy See's press centre described the incident as "the crudest violation" of the Russian government's international religious freedom obligations, and on 22 April Polish news agency PAP reported that President of Poland Aleksander Kwasniewski had declared support for the Vatican's response. Also on 22 April, Russian news agency Interfax reported that the Polish ambassador to Russia, Stefan Meller, had submitted a note of protest to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs the same day requesting grounds for Bishop Mazur's expulsion. Commenting upon Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Yakovenko's subsequent statement, Bishop Mazur was quoted by Warsaw-based Polish Radio 1 on 23 April as stating that "there should be specific details as to the nature of the charges." (END) II. RUSSIA: CAMPAIGN AGAINST CATHOLICS?

by Geraldine Fagan and Tatyana Titova, Keston News Service

"Events in recent months demonstrate that an organised campaign is being waged against the Catholic Church in Russia, " maintains a 20 April statement from the head of Russia's Catholics, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz. Since the Vatican updgraded its four apostolic administrations in Russia to dioceses in February, prominent Italian parish priest Fr Stefano Caprio and Irkutsk-based Polish Bishop Jerzy Mazur have been denied entry to Russia despite holding valid visas. Local authorities have halted the construction in Pskov of a Catholic church in the wake of a complaint by the local Orthodox bishop, and Magadan's department of justice is seeking to liquidate the local Catholic parish since its priest, US citizen Fr Michael Shields, does not have a residence permit. On 23 April Saratov parish priest, Irish citizen Fr Michael Screene, told Keston that the local department of justice had also warned him that he could not function as parish priest after 1 May since he does not have a residence permit. On the same day, a Warsaw-based Polish radio station reported that a Polish Franciscan monk, Brother Damian Stepien, was asked for his identification papers by police on leaving Moscow's Catholic cathedral. When he replied positively to the police officers' question as to whether he was Catholic, said Brother Stepien, they crumpled up his papers and threw them in a rubbish bin. The initiators of the presumed campaign remain elusive, however. The only recent prominent calls from within the Russian state apparatus for a restriction on Catholic activity have come from the Russian parliament, the Duma. On 19 February Stepan Medvedko, adviser to the Duma Committee for Religious and Social Organisations, told Keston that on 15 February the Duma passed a motion instructing his Committee to request information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on violations of freedom of religion committed by the Catholic Church in the former Soviet Union and to review "the situation arisen in connection with the active proselytism of the Catholic Church in traditionally Orthodox areas." The motion, according to Medvedko, was passed with a clear majority of approximately two-thirds. Proposing the motion, according to RIA Novosti news agency, Duma vice-chairman Vladimir Zhirinovsky additionally called upon the Ministry of Foreign Affairs "not to give visas to representatives of the Vatican in connection with the heightened circumstances and their wilful actions in changing the status of Catholic dioceses". Two days before Bishop Mazur's expulsion, the Duma was due to consider a draft resolution on the activity of the Catholic Church in the Russian Federation. Proposed by deputy Viktor Alksnis, it called for a ban on the activity of the four recently-formed dioceses under Article 14 of the 1997 law on religion, since, argued Alksnis, the Church's use of the geographical name "Karafuto" ostensibly amounted to "an encroachment upon Russian territorial integrity." Also on 17 April, according to a RIA Novosti report, Communist Deputy Boris Kibirev called on the Duma religion committee to provide information on the financial support received by Russian Catholic communities in order to determine "to what extent their financial sources are in line with Russian legislation". Speaking to Keston on 22 April, adviser to the Duma religion committee Stepan Medvedko said that Deputy Alksnis' resolution was not in fact debated on 17 April due to the parliament's packed current timetable. The proposal had anyway "partially lost its relevance," he said, since on 16 April the leader of Russia's Catholics, Archbishop Kondrusiewicz, sent an official letter to Alksnis and Duma speaker Gennady Seleznyov maintaining that the proposed resolution was based on an unofficial Russian Catholic website erroneously still using the name "Karafuto". Although an extra parliamentary session was held on 18 April, pointed out Medvedko, Deputy Alksnis had not insisted upon his proposal being transferred to that day. Asked about the recent difficulties encountered by Russian Catholics, Medvedko noted that Bishop Mazur had possessed a visa which was valid until January 2003, and said that his committee had been "surprised that events took such a turn". On 23 April, Andrei Sebentsov, vice-chairman of the Russian government's Commission for Religious Organisations, similarly told Keston that he found the recent incidents involving Catholic clergy "surprising and incomprehensible". However, he said that as yet he did not have sufficient information or explanations to comment on whether they represented an anti-Catholic campaign. He did state, however, that an invitation from a registered religious community and a valid visa were the only legal criteria for foreign Catholic clergy to function in Russia, and a residence permit was not required. Asked by Keston whether he thought the recent events were a result of the Catholic Church's formation of four dioceses in Russia in February, Sebentsov remarked that "the setting up of dioceses may not be a friendly step towards the Russian Orthodox Church, but as far as the state is concerned it is a neutral development." The only concern held by the state, he maintained, was the use of the name "Karafuto", whose negative implications upon relations with the Russian state, in his view, had not been thought through by the Vatican. The presidential administration appears to be at least mildly supportive of the Catholics' position. On 18 April Vremya Novostei newspaper reported that Sergei Abramov, deputy director of the administration's main department for internal policy, had stated that "the presidential administration is concerned by violations of legislation regarding Catholics and will always stand in defence of Russian laws." Contacted by Keston on 22 April, Andrei Sarychev, a presidential administration official specialising in relations with the Catholic Church, said that he hoped that the situation involving Bishop Mazur would be "corrected". Since he did not yet know "the facts behind the decision of the competent organs," he said, he was unable to comment upon what had happened in that case. When Keston suggested calling back once Sarychev did have more information, he remarked ironically that he was "hardly likely" to be told anything further. On 23 April the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a memorandum expressing concern that increasing influence of the Moscow Patriarchate in Russia is curbing the rights of other religious organisations. According to an Interfax report, PACE members called for Bishop Mazur to be allowed to continue his religious activities in Russia. On 22 April Moscow Patriarchate spokesman Fr Vsevolod Chaplin told Interfax that the Russian Orthodox Church was in no way the initiator of Bishop Mazur's expulsion. Pointing out that Bishop Mazur's title had included the term "Karafuto", Fr Chaplin maintained that if similar actions were taken in the United States or Europe, world opinion would be understanding, so it would be strange if Russia's actions in this case were not received with understanding. Writing on the recent developments in Nezavisimaya Gazeta on 22 April, journalist Oleg Nedumov points out that the Russian authorities would not risk the serious international scandal resulting from the expulsion of two Catholic priests without "weighty reasons". In his view, the Kremlin could in fact be playing "a subtle game" by fanning the scandal so that the Moscow Patriarchate will be accused of waging an anti-Catholic campaign. In order to smooth over the scandal, predicts Nedumov, the Moscow Patriarchate will be obliged to make a goodwill gesture to the Vatican - giving its consent to President Putin's much-desired papal visit. (END)

Copyright (c) 2002 Keston Institute. All rights reserved. Subscribe to the free weekly KNS Summary, or to the almost daily Keston News Service, through our website http://www.keston.org/ where donations may also be made. KNS articles are posted on the website, as well as details of our other publications: the bimonthly magazine Frontier and the quarterly academic journal Religion, State & Society. ______________________________________ REPRINTING/QUOTING KNS may be reprinted or quoted providing acknowledgment is given, such as "Source: Keston Institute http://www.keston.org". We would appreciate receiving a copy of any publication which quotes KNS.

Queries should be addressed to Lorna Howard, keston.institute@keston.org Tel: + 44 (0)1865/79 29 29; Fax: + 44 (0)1865/24 00 42; Keston Institute, 38 St Aldates, Oxford OX1 1BN, UK."

Russia has had the monopoly of Chess playing since american Bobby Fisher left the game.

Is the last theory expressed in the text is true, Korschnoy and Karpov are beginners compared to Putin! :-)

-- Atila (me@somewhere.com), April 24, 2002

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