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#17 - JRL 2006-282 - JRL Home
Russian Church Suggests Amending Provisions In NGO Law

MOSCOW. Dec 14 (Interfax) - The Russian Orthodox Church has suggested that a number of provisions of the law On Non-Governmental Organizations regarding the confirmation of the number of members of religious organizations be amended.

"The matter does not involve attempts to conceal finances, but regards a number of the law's provisions that, with all due respect, are impossible to observe," Moscow Patriarchate spokesman Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad told Interfax on Thursday.

The Russian Orthodox Church suggests that religious organizations be exempt from the obligation to confirm the number of members, as the law on NGO requires, he said.

Russian presidential civil society institutions development and human rights council head Ella Pamfilova told Interfax on Thursday that regulations following from the law on NGOs need adjustment.

"Monitoring that has been carried out suggests a preliminary conclusion that some regulations should be modified," she said.

"The accountability system, which was proposed not so much by the Federal Registration Service as by the Finance Ministry, is enormously cumbersome," she said.