Russias lower-house State Dumahosted a roundtable late Tuesday devoted to combating Satanism and other ideological beliefs that authorities declare threaten Russian statehood.Lawmakers at the meetingidentified Satanism as a misanthropic ideology based on the validation of evil, saying that its objective was to damage Russias spiritual denominations as part of Western hybrid warfare.
They compared it with Nazism and LGBTQ+, according to the newspaper Vedomosti.Why do we wish to restrict the rights of Satanists? Because they posture a severe threat to our nation, stated Vyacheslav Leontiyev, a senior member of the Dumas anti-Satanism working group.The group and the Duma Committee on Issues of Public Associations and Religious Organizations are expected to start drafting amendments to Russias laws on flexibility of conscience, info and commerce to eliminate the spread of satanism and other destructive cults and ideologies.
It was not immediately clear when legislators would vote on the bills.We need to see how these Satanists earn a living.
Who prints their books and posters? Who spends for their programs and efficiencies? Whos the customer? asked State Duma legislator Andrei Kartapolov, a member of the judgment United Russia party.Vedomosti reported that the three-hour roundtable was presented with a video of the questionable far-right Ukrainian military unit Azov, which Russias Supreme Court declared a terrorist organization in August 2022.
The video was entwined with a voiceover about Satanic routine orgies.Were getting numerous complaints of Satanic sex orgies in Moscow and other Russian cities from citizens, stated Nikolai Burlyayev, a senior member of the Dumas spiritual committee, including that the encroachment on Russias standard conservative values threatens the collapse of our civilization state.Bishop Pitirim from the Skopinsky diocese of the Ryazan region claimed the number of magicians, psychics, tarot card readers, numerologists and witches tripled in the past year and now totals 800,000 individuals.
That compares with 40,000 Russian Orthodox priests, he claimed.Head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill has actually advised making use of previous experience and prohibiting the so-called internationalist satanist movement, stated senior church authorities Fyodor Lukyanov.Russias Supreme Court prohibited the so-called global LGBT motion as an extremist company in November 2023, effectively criminalizing any form of LGBTQ+ displays or rights advocacy in the country.The influence of the Orthodox Church has progressively risen as Russia takes a significantly conservative social turn.