How to Entrench a De Facto State Church in Russia: A Guide in Progress
Robert C. Blitt, How to Entrench a De Facto State Church in Russia: A Guide in Progress (July 21, 2008). Brigham Young University Law Review, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1167797
The Russian Orthodox Church’s (ROC) assertion of a constitutionally inappropriate role in affairs of state has severely compromised Russia’s secular constitutional framework. This gradual but steady erosion of the barrier between church and state is evidenced by a series of contemporary developments that are inexorably linked to the Church’s vision of its traditional place in Russian history.
Disturbingly, each successive post-communist regime has further enabled this behavior, and there is no indication that the political transition from President Vladimir Putin to his hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, will change anything.
This paper argues that the emerging pattern of collusion presents a serious challenge to Russia’s constitutional order and to the country’s regional and international human rights commitments - chief among these being the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief.