Through the Jews, religion in Russia is subordinated to the FSB
In Putin’s Russia, religion has fallen under the total control of the FSB and other state structures. This is clearly visible in the Protestant environment, especially since human rights work is almost nonexistent or is silenced by church leadership. Any protest movement for the rights of believers before the state is discouraged, suppressed, and condemned. In particular, the pacifist movement of conscientious objection to military service has been completely destroyed.
The beginning of total control over Protestants in Russia was marked by the adoption of the discriminatory Law on Freedom of Conscience in 1997. This led to the deregistration of all churches and other religious associations that did not have a legal history of existence for fifteen years, i.e., dating back to the Soviet period! This meant that all those churches that had been banned in the communist Soviet Union were to be banned again!
However, for some unknown reason, a certain Sergei Ryakhovsky, who declared himself a Pentecostal bishop, miraculously retained his registration! Moreover, he even received the right to create and register any churches under his aegis. With no other possibility to legalize, a huge number of churches were forced to come under the “roof” of Sergei Ryakhovsky and the ROSKhVE (Russian United Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith) that he created. This made Sergei Ryakhovsky the main representative of Protestants before the state.
In Soviet times, Ryakhovsky was allegedly a presbyter of an underground Pentecostal church in Moscow. But at the same time, he worked as the chairman of the trade union organization of the Moscow Reinforced Concrete Structures Plant! The fact is that in the USSR, trade unions were under the full control of the Communist Party. The first page of a trade union membership card even contained Lenin’s words that “trade unions are a school of communism.” Therefore, the chairman of the trade union organization of a major Moscow plant could not but be a member of the Communist Party!
After the collapse of the USSR, Ryakhovsky lost this position and did not stand out, but it was precisely after the adoption of the discriminatory Law on Freedom of Conscience that his rapid ascent in the Protestant environment began. There is reason to believe that Russia’s special services began to intensify agent work among Protestants and to reactivate old Soviet agent networks.
That is when they remembered Ryakhovsky! Apparently, this was approved by the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. It was thought that Sergei Ryakhovsky would be able to unite various churches within the framework of a new Union—ROSKhVE—that would be absolutely loyal to the Kremlin. This would allow Ryakhovsky to join the Presidential Council for Cooperation with Religious Associations. And any protest moods in the evangelical environment would be restrained by the firm of Sergei Ryakhovsky’s brother, Vladimir. He is the head of the Slavic Legal Center.
In fact, from the end of the 1990s, Sergei Ryakhovsky fought for a monopoly position as the leader of Russian [Protestants] in the eyes of the authorities, pushing other Protestant figures into the background. The same tactic was used by the Slavic Legal Center headed by his brother. Vladimir Ryakhovsky’s Slavic Legal Center asserted itself as a unique organization for protecting the rights of believers in Russia. This led to the complete destruction of the system for protecting believers’ rights in the regions of Russia.
The Russian authorities do not benefit from the Lautenberg Amendment. During his visits to the USA, Ryakhovsky actively campaigns for its repeal. For instance, in May 2013, he gathered Slavic Protestant pastors in Sacramento. He persuaded them to help abolish the Lautenberg Amendment, explaining to the American public that Russia is a democratic country and that no refugees can come from it. Allegedly, the Lautenberg Amendment compromises the current Russian leadership headed by Putin. After that, many Slavic churches in the USA received instructions to cease all human rights activities, especially those directed at supporting the Lautenberg Amendment and criticizing the Kremlin. Thus, Russian intelligence seeks to control Russian-speaking Protestants in the USA through Ryakhovsky and to channel their activities in a direction favorable to the Kremlin.
Ryakhovsky sometimes visits the USA up to four times a year. He creates a pro-Russian lobby here, which is one of the main tasks of Russian intelligence. Also, the pastor of a church in Chita, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, publicly accused Ryakhovsky of collaborating with the FSB. I, in turn, also had occasion to be convinced of this. In 1986-87, after being released from prison, I tried to organize aid through Ryakhovsky for Soviet prisoners of conscience, as Ryakhovsky had many acquaintances among foreigners. But all my attempts proved futile. Ryakhovsky blocked this activity and then stopped communicating altogether.
In 2002, Sergei Ryakhovsky joined the Council for Cooperation with Religious Associations under the President of the Russian Federation, and the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, where he has served continuously since 2006. An important circumstance is that he became the only clergyman-member of the Civic Chamber representing a so-called “non-traditional” denomination for Russia. Ryakhovsky was repeatedly elected to the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation from Russian public associations: in 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012.
Since 2005, the Kremlin’s perception of Protestant churches as a “fifth column,” a potential pro-Western force inclined to support democratic values and institutions, has intensified. The reason for this was the participation of evangelical churches in the “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine on the side of Viktor Yushchenko. Suspicions of “espionage” in favor of the West underlie the religious policy pursued by many regional FSB agencies toward Protestants. Pastors were summoned for talks, rumors were spread that there were “CIA agents” in the churches, and meetings were held with prosecutors and media representatives, where the danger of Protestants and the undesirability of their growth were discussed.
Simultaneously with the Kremlin, Sergei Ryakhovsky, oddly enough, also begins to speak out against this “fifth column,” since the authorities, through the media, called to expose the democratic “orange threat” and destroy it.
“Pentecostals will not become a tool of the ‘orange’ revolution,” stated Sergei Ryakhovsky in an interview with Interfax-Religion on June 13, 2005, http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=interview&div=27).
During Putin’s pre-election meeting with representatives of religious associations on February 8, 2012, Sergei Ryakhovsky noted that Protestants support him as a presidential candidate, and once again justified himself before the authorities for the “orange revolution” and separated Russian Protestants from Western ones, more dangerous and immoral.
The day after this meeting, an article by Ryakhovsky appeared, in which he writes: “Without waiting for the election results, we are ready today to get involved in implementing many of the projects announced today.”
Ryakhovsky further wrote: “My position is very simple. Under no circumstances criticize or sue the Russian authorities.” This is confirmed in practice. Thus, in the autumn of 2012, in Saratov, prosecutors burst into the “Word of Life” church and interrupted the service in a rude manner, doing what the Pussy Riot group received two years of imprisonment for. But Ryakhovsky’s ROSHVE forbade the Saratov church from protesting and appealing to human rights organizations in America, particularly to ARRC, convincing them that they would sort it out themselves. But nothing changed in the end.
In September, in Moscow’s Novokosino district, the Pentecostal church “Holy Trinity,” which had been functioning since Soviet times, was completely demolished. The pastor of this community, Vasily Romanyuk, as well as many pastors and believers from the regions, were ready to come to Moscow with placards to protest the demolition of the “Holy Trinity” church, and then to sign a protest letter addressed to Putin regarding this barbaric demolition and sacrilege! But Ryakhovsky banned these actions. As a result, the church was destroyed, no protests followed, and in December 2012, Sergei Ryakhovsky was awarded a certificate by President Putin, received from the hands of Moscow Mayor Sobyanin (http://baznica.info/article/episkop-sergei-ryakhovskii-poluchil-blagod) with gratitude for such public activity.
As leaders of many churches note, after the December 2011 elections, Sergei Ryakhovsky, most likely on instructions from the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, traveled to churches in Siberia and the Far East, convincing everyone that speaking out against the authorities is bad, that one must not go out into the streets, etc.
Looking at reports on the latest seminars on religion and Ryakhovsky’s speeches there, one can see the main idea: that one must overcome resistance to authority within oneself, harmony with the state is needed, and any thoughts criticizing the Putin regime are a temptation and intellectual complexes that must be eradicated.
That is why the main capital of the head of ROSHVE remains recognition from the authorities and the presidential administration. In addition to membership in various councils and commissions, Sergei Ryakhovsky was awarded by a Decree of the President of the Russian Federation in 2000 the Medal of the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland” II degree, and in 2002 was awarded a medal on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Ministry of Justice. In 2006 he was awarded the highest civilian award – the Golden Badge “Public Recognition.”
In the dossiers published in “Novaya Gazeta” on various members of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, which were compiled in the administration, regarding Sergei Ryakhovsky it is simply noted: “Active. Loyal. Media presence weak, only in specialized media. Special measures not required.”
Boris Perchatkin
Links to materials used
[1] Evangelie.ru September 29, 2011, http://www.evangelie.ru/content.php?r=377
[2] Personal blog of Sergei Yastrzhembsky, February 11, 2012, http://g12pastor.blogspot.ru/2012/02/blog-post.html
[3] Baznica.info April 18, 2012, http://baznica.info/article/pochemu-tserkvi-plyashut-pod-dudku-kremlya
[4] Portal-Credo.Ru, August 22, 2012, http://www.portal-credo.ru/site/?act=news&id=94624&type=view
[5] In the framework of the project “Encyclopedia of Contemporary Religious Life in Russia” (headed by Sergei Filatov).
[6] CNL-NEWS Agency, December 30, 2008, http://www.cnlnews.tv/2008/12/30/roshve/
[7] Christian World News, April 4, 2005, http://prochurch.info/index.php/more/870
[8] Website of the “New Generation” Church (Latvia), April 14, 2005, http://www.ng.lv/rus/novosti_/mnenie_pastora__pozicia_cerkvi/zaavlenia__obrasenia__otveti/?doc=1566&ins_print
[9] For example, see: Bishop Sergei Ryakhovsky sharply criticized the decree of President Yushchenko on the rehabilitation of Ukrainian nationalists // Newsru.ru, October 23, 2006, http://www.newsru.ru/arch/religy/23oct2006/rzakhovskiy.html ; Sergei Ryakhovsky: A PR campaign is being waged against the Patriarch and the ROC // Pravda.ru, March 30, 2012, http://www.pravda.ru/news/politics/30-03-2012/1113078-Ryahovsky-0/, The head of Russian Pentecostals reproaches the Georgian Church for inaction during the attack on South Ossetia // Interfax-Religion, August 28, 2008, http://interfax-religion.ru/gry/?act=news&div=26228, etc.
[10] http://www.novayagazeta.ru/comments/52643.html
[11] Sergei Ryakhovsky: the Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation should resign // http://www.newsru.com/religy/15apr2009/dvorkin.html
[12] In the framework of the project “Encyclopedia of Contemporary Religious Life in Russia” (headed by Sergei Filatov).
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