Two Mormons Detained In Russian Black Sea Port, Amid Religious Clampdown

[Guest Indiana]

Russian law enforcement officials have detained two members of the Mormon church in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk on unspecified charges.

Eric Hawkins, a spokesman for the U.S.-based church, said in a statement e-mailed to RFE/RL that the two unnamed individuals were taken into custody on March 1 during a local church meeting, but gave few other details.

“Two of our volunteers serving in Novorossiysk, Russia, were detained by authorities Friday evening while engaged in a meeting at a local meetinghouse. While we are grateful these young men are reportedly in good condition and are being treated well, we are troubled by the circumstances surrounding their detention,” Hawkins wrote.

“They have both spoken to their parents,” the spokesman also said. “We will continue to work with local authorities and encourage the swift release of these volunteers.”

A U.S. State Department spokesman confirmed the detentions, but gave no further information.

Read more: https://www.rferl.org/a/two-mormons-detained-in-russian-black-sea-port/29807220.html

[Guest Indiana]

Two U.S. Mormons detained in Russia for violating immigration law and reportedly charged with teaching English without a license are set to be deported from Russia, local media said on Thursday.

The two men, identified as David Gaaga and Kole Brodowski, were detained in southern Russia region late last week, U.S. media reported Wednesday. Both the Russian Foreign Ministry and the U.S. State Department have confirmed their detention.

A district court in Novorossiysk found them guilty of violating Russia’s immigration laws last Saturday, the local kubnews.ru news website reportedThursday. One of the Americans’ fathers told a news station in Salt Lake City, Utah that they had also been charged with teaching English without a license.

“They’re currently in a special holding center for persons under administrative arrest awaiting deportation,” Interfax quoted an unidentified source in Krasnodar region’s security services as saying Thursday.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/03/07/two-american-mormons-detained-in-russia-will-be-deported-reports-a64739

[Guest Indiana]

RUSSIA: Mormons worry about a fate like Jehovah’s Witnesses

by admin_HRWF | Mar 14, 2019 | Freedom of Religion and Belief

Kuban Mormons fear repressions against their church

Russia Religion News (11.03.2019) – https://bit.ly/2TKVzNC – The decision of the Krasnodar territory court about the deportation of two American Mormons is connected with the start of repressions against this church in Russia, a believer from Novorossiisk and the lawyer Sergei Glizuntsa suggest. In the case there is no evidence that the missionaries taught the English language under the guise of preaching, the defense attorney insists.

Kavkazskii Uzel has reported that on 2 March a court in Novorossiisk ordered the deportation to the U.S.A. of adherents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints David Udo Hague and Cole Davis Brodovsky. The Krasnodar territory court left that decision in force, agreeing with the conclusion that they taught the English language under the guise of religious activity. The American citizens themselves did not acknowledge guilt, explaining that they merely conducted conversations in the English language on abstract topics.

In the opinion of Hague and Brodovsky’s lawyer, Sergei Glizuntsa, the decision of the two courts may speak of the start of repressions against Mormons in Russia. “I think that it went through all instances like the Jehovah’s Witnesses* were treated,” he told a Kavkazskii Uzel correspondent.

On 20 April 2017, the Russian Supreme Court granted the petition of the Ministry of Justice regarding the liquidation of all Russian organizations of Jehovah’s Witnesses* as extremist and on 16 August the “Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia*” and all of its local affiliates wound up on the list of forbidden organizations, a report prepared by Kavkazskii Uzel, “Jehovah’s Witnesses*–extremists or victims of injustice?” notes.

https://hrwf.eu/russia-mormons-worry-about-a-fate-like-jehovahs-witnesses/

[Guest Indiana]

Two U.S. Mormons Released From Custody In Russia, Return Home

Two Mormons who were detained in Russia and accused of violating immigration laws have been released and are returning home to the United States.

Americans Kole Brodowski, 20, and David Gaag, 19, "have been released" and were returning to the United States, Eric Hawkins, a spokesman for the U.S.-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said in an e-mail to RFE/RL on March 20.

Russian media reports said the two men had been deported. The regional news site Novaya Kuban quoted unnamed sources as saying they took a predawn flight from the southern city of Krasnodar to Istanbul and would travel from there to New York.

Brodowski and Gaag, described by the church as "volunteers," were detained by the authorities on March 1 "while engaged in a meeting at a local meetinghouse" in the Black Sea coastal city Novorossiisk, Hawkins told RFE/RL in a previous statement.

A court in Novorossiisk ruled on March 7 that the two U.S. citizens must be deported for what it called violations of immigration laws.

The detentions come with growing scrutiny within Russia on religious groups that don't qualify as one of the four formally recognized religions.

Freedom of religion is formally guaranteed in Russia, but the Russian government and the dominant Russian Orthodox Church frown on proselytizing by foreign-based religious communities.

Read more: https://www.rferl.org/a/two-us-mormons-released-from-custody-in-russia-return-home/29832677.html