(A worker cleans snow from a roof in front of the domes of the several several churches and cathedrals inside Moscow’s Kremlin January 27, 2012. REUTERS/Anton Golubev )
The Russian government has asked parliament to amend a bill that would set jail terms for “offending religious feeling” – a measure lawmakers proposed after last year’s Pussy Riot protest at a Moscow cathedral.
In a statement issued on International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday, the government suggested existing legislation, if altered, might suffice to protect faith communities and seemed to question the need for the bill; critics have said it may harm Jews, Muslims and others outside the Russian Orthodox Church that President Vladimir Putin has been anxious not to alienate.
One of the lawmakers who sponsored the bill, which was backed by Putin’s party and allies, said the government’s advice would be heeded. Yaroslav Nilov said a phrase seen to favour the Russian Orthodox Church would be removed and the legislation would protect all religions operating legally in Russia.
It was not clear what the next step in parliament would be.
Legislators submitted the bill after three women from the Pussy Riot punk collective were convicted for a protest last February inside Christ the Saviour cathedral, in which they urged the church to stop backing Putin. As proposed, it would introduce sentences of up to three years for insult to religion and five years for damage to religious property.
