Over the past week in St. Petersburg Russia, amongst various political bullshit that goes on there, something has happened that is quite relevant to our cause.
tl;dr version: An ex-scientologist, remaining anonymous, placed a complaint with the St. Petersburg police about the church, and as a result, the church was raided, several boxes of teachings were taken. The scientologists are baawing about it, however, they have no legal standing in Russia as they were outlawd, as far as I can tell a while back.
Links to the stories below, along with a rough translation courtesy of me Sorry for any mistakes. It's fairly tl;dr, and my translation isn't the best but, two things. All the "" are not mine, but rather Fontanka's. and two, the fontanka is a St Petersburg regional newspaper that has rather close ties with the police.
http://www.fontanka.ru/2008/02/22/064/
Quote:
The Confessions of Scientology Delivered to the Prosecutors
The Scientologists of St. Petersburg once again ended up in the field of view of the police. Yesterday, their office from 11am to 1pm were full of workers from the Kirov UVD (police) and the Prosecutor's office. Their "catch" was two boxes of the so called "confessions" of the church of scientology. However, the followers of Hubbard were not willing to give these up so easily. The protest of several hundred followers and several tens of church workers ended with the police backing away.
The reason for the assault of two dozen strongmen came from a complant by a private citizen, a previous member of the church, who has remained anonymous due to his fear of his information being used against him. In the office, the gathered scientologists, in police speak, began to cause "passive resistance against government forces," or in simple terms, were loudly disgruntled. To help the "bluecoats" several aditional detachements from the local police department were called in. According to several sources, the offices of the "church" were also visited by the forces of national security. [ED note: read "KGB"] In the end at the house (41 on Zaycev street) where the "Scientologist Church" is located, about ten police cars gathered (apparently, the idea of arresting anybody who was too violent was not excluded" and several hundreds of the followers of the cult.
"The Uncalled visitors" were told by the church people that the citizen that had complained before had been handed a responce in writing that stated that all his fears were pointless. But this argument was not accepted. As a result folders with "confessions" of the citizens were discovered. The auditors of public justice decided to withdraw them from the premises. Scientologists protested against this, claiming the holy secrecy of the confessions, their constitutional rights, and the untouchability of private life. However, the arguments did not come down to brute physical force.
In the end, around 1am in the morning, police took the "confessions" anyways. The appropriate paperwork for the withdrawal of these files was also written up, however the followers of the teaching refused to show it to us.
After the public servants had left, many of the supports of the "Church of Scientology" that sped to the help of their organization stayed at the building for the night, as because of the lateness they could not leave. [ED note: Public transporation in St. Petersburg stops around midnight.] Gathered near the entrance to the building and in the corridors, they discussed what had happened.
According to the followers of the teachings, their legal representatives are working on the question of defence of the organization. In the upcoming future, an appeal may be delivered to the procecutor's office, complaining about the "unwanted guests." However, the scientologists seem to have decided not to actually visit the Prosecutor's office in person.
The press department of the GUVD (police) refused to comment. The press deparartment of the prosecutor said that at the current time it has been discovered if there was any connection between the scientologists themselves and the religious organizations they claim to be a part of.
The "followers", when asked the question as what they believe these "confessions" to be, answer that this way "they trust their inner thoughts to the priest" in written form. "Fontanka" turned to the religious department of the RGPU of Gercen. [ED's Note, Gercen's institute is one of the biggest in St. Petersburg.] One of the professors has told us that in 1959, Hubbard (the founder of scientology) included a requisite "confession" during which the followers of the religion would go through a certain "questioning." They must answer to long lists of questions that have been prepared beforehand, questions asking them about their moral sins. A device called an "e-meter" is used to tell if they are lying or not. All recieved data is carefully recorded.
We must note that the interest of the Law may cause problems for the existance of Scientologist in St. Petersburg, as in recent times the organization is clinging to "bird's rights." We remind our readers that on July 12, 2007, the High Court of St Petersburg, at a request of the Prosecutor's office, liquidated the organization "Center of Scientology" because of a string of violations. The Supreme Cout has left this decision in power. At the current time, the organization is functioning as a religious organization, however has not been able to register its current status with the Federal registration service.
-Aleksey Yaushev
Fontanka.ru
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Edited for minor translation errors.