The Hare Krishna devotees in Russia are growing in numbers every year and chanting the names of Lord Krishna for the spiritual benefit of everyone. However, on November 23, 2021, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France took a decision based on an appeal from the Centre of Societies for Krishna Consciousness in Russia and its Head of Law Department Maha-Balarama das. The reason for the appeal to the ECHR was the negative assessment of the Hare Krishna organization by the state authorities of the Ulyanovsk region of the Russian Federation and the refusal to approve a harinama, i.e. singing and chanting God’s names in public, in Moscow. The events took place in 2010 as well as 2013 respectively, and it took all these years for the court to carry out the decision. In the appeal, Maha-Balarama das complained about the inability of the Russian authorities to protect the Hare Krishnas from defamation. In particular, it was about the project "Beware of Sects!" organized by the authorities of the Ulyanovsk region in 2008 and the brochure "Be careful: Sects!" distributed within the framework of this project. According to Maha-Balarama das, the word “sect” carries a negative connotation in the Russian media. The second complaint concerned the Moscow authorities' ban on conducting a harinama.
The Centre of Societies for Krishna Consciousness is a religious organization that consists of more than 70 regional Centres for Krishna Consciousness, all of which are officially registered in the Russian Federation and thus have the government's permission to hold services and engage in social welfare work. The Society's teachings are based on the centuries-old Vaisnava philosophy, also known as bhakti-yoga, which originated in India. The Hare Krishna Movement in Russia was started in 1971 when Srila Prabhupada visited Moscow, and in 1988 the organisation was officially registered in the USSR.
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/iskcon-in-russia,8128/
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