Russian Law Doesn’t Define Who is a Believer and Thus Can Be Offended

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 31 – Russian officials are bringing ever more cases against Russians for  regime uses against opponents (bbc.com/russian/news-59228017). But there is a serious problem in all this: Russian law doesn’t define who is a believer and who is not, Aleksey Roshchin says.

            Because that is the case, officials have no basis other than their own assumptions and preferences to decide who is a believer and thus can be offended, the Moscow commentator says. Someone can claim to be offended by some action without being a believer at all but officials can decide that he or she is and bring a case – or not (publizist.ru/blogs/113970/41234/-).

            That creates a truly “Kavkaesque” situation in which the state decides who is a believer and when and renders the entire policy of the Putin regime “absurd,” Roshchin says.