Russia's Evangelical Church Groups Under Pressure As Medvedev Wins Ballot

Dimitri Medvedev speaking to reporters on Monday, March 3. Via VOA News

Monday, 03 March 2008

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife

MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- No military parade but a 21st century rock concert on Moscow's Red Square celebrated the election victory of Deputy Prime Minister Dimitri Medvedev, who Christian missionaries fear will continue the perceived autocratic, nationalistic and anti-Western policies of outgoing President Vladimir Putin.

Official results of Sunday's ballot showed 42-year-old Medvedev received over 70 percent of the vote, beating his main Communist rival Gennady Zyuganov, followed by populist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Andrei Bogdanov.

Medvedev vowed to continue the legacy of President Putin, saying "the last eight years had shown it was important to protect Russia's national interest." He has already made clear that Russia will articulate its own foreign policy on issues such as Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia last month. Russia supports Serbia's diplomatic campaign against Western countries that have recognized Kosovo’s sovereignty.

Mission groups fear that policy could lead to more pressure on evangelical churches and related groups, who are viewed as pro-Western with a style and music that counter those of the more traditional Orthodox Church. Sergey Rakhuba, the vice president of mission group Russian Ministries, told Christian media that "Russian authorities think that all these ministry organizations will bring in [outside] influence."

WESTERN SUPPORT

Although Russian Ministries is indigenous, they do receive resources from the West, he admitted. "So we are [financially] less vulnerable than others, but still overall it affects our ministry because we are the evangelical church. We are more pro-freedom." He has warned that religious freedom will be curtailed, one of the main reasons why Russian Ministries launched the Schools Without Walls program that equips future leaders for evangelism and church-planting. "The Russian evangelical church may suffer because of the lack of young leaders who can lead the church in current situations," he said.

In comments to the US-based Christian Broadcast Network monitored by BosNewsLife, Rakhuba said there are already new restrictions resembling the Communist era in Russia. Evangelical Christians and missionaries, he said, "are not allowed to go to schools, like they used to, to teach the Gospel, to witness to children to help them...The Orthodox Church of Russia is trying to monopolize the religious activity, because they claim that Russia belongs to the Orthodox Church and vice versa."

He said the Kremlin is "very careful about evangelicals or foreign evangelical" Non Governmental Organizations "influencing their country." He added that society has been made to believe that the Orange Revolution in nearby Ukraine or the Rose Revolution in neighboring Georgia "was supported by foreign funds."

MORE PERSECUTION

However Rakhuba stressed that despite these political developments, "the Russian evangelical church is used to all kinds of persecutions, and together with our Orthodox brothers they went through the great persecution of the 30's, 40's, and 50's." He suggested that, "the evangelical church under persecution is getting more faithful, more active in terms of following the values of Biblical teaching."

Christian concerns over the political situation in the country is shared by prominent opposition leader, including Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov. He told reporters in Moscow there had been massive fraud during this weekend's election.

"We already saw massive falsification. But most important is the policy of intimidation. We hear it all the way from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad. The voters are forced to participate in this mockery," he said.

SEVERAL ARRESTS

The ex-chess champion was reportedly even prevented from entering Red Square, amid reports four opposition activists with him were arrested.

Former Russian Prime Minster Mikhail Kasyanov, who had his application to run in the elections blocked, also criticized the ballot. "Elections without choice, that's not an election," he noticed. "That's why we as an opposition are ofcourse not participating in this special operation of the secret services of Russia."

Critics predict that Putin will still pull the strings, following Medvedev's inauguration on May 7.(With BosNewsLife Monitoring).

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