Ukraine religious leader arrested in Russia while preaching
A Ukrainian religious leader was arrested while preaching to the St. Petersburg Messianic Jewish community in Russia. The preacher, Sergei Zhuravlyov, was accused of violating an anti-terror law that prohibits missionary activity.
Zhuravlyov, a representative of the Ukrainian Reformed Orthodox Church of Christ the Savior, was specifically accused of promoting hate speech and having ties to the Ukraninian nationalist party known as "Right Sector." He is currently out on bail, the Moscow Times reported.
The anti-terror legislation used against him was signed into law by Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 7. It is popularly known as the "Yarovaya law," named after its principal author, Irina Yarovaya.
Critics have expressed their concern about the overbearing traits of the law.
"This is an absolutely draconian law, even the Soviet Union did not have such an overwhelmingly repressive legislation," said Gennady Gudkov to the Los Angeles Times. Gudkov is a lawmaker who was evicted from Duma for criticizing Putin.
Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who is on temporary asylum in Russia, also expressed similar sentiments on Twitter.
Six individuals have already been arrested for conducting missionary activities since July. One was identified as a Hare Krishna while the other five were Christians.
One of the Christians was American Baptist minister Daniel Ossewaarde. He was fined 40,000 rubles (approx. $600) for holding a Bible study session in his home. He is currently appealing his case and hopes that it will prevent other missionaries from getting in trouble with the law.
"The way they wrote the law is very ineffective in accomplishing what they wanted to accomplish," Ossewaarde told the Baptist Press.
"They wanted to make all missionary activity illegal. The law as written doesn't apply to me, and that's why I believe that we will win this appeal. But long term, obviously they can write another law that says missionary activity is just plain outlawed. I certainly consider myself a missionary," he added.
