Moscow - A district court yesterday ordered the Salvation Army to shut down its operations in the Russian capital in the latest fallout from a strict 1997 law that has raised concerns about religious freedom in Russia.
After two years of legal wrangling, Judge Svetlana Grigoryeva reached a ruling quickly in the proceedings in the Tagansky district court, the Salvation Army's headquarters for Eastern Europe said in a statement.
The Moscow government has sought to shut down the Salvation Army, accusing it of not registering on time and failing to regularly report its activities to authorities. The missionary group, which operates soup kitchens and does other charity work, says the government unfairly denied it registration based on the 1997 law. The group said it would appeal the ruling.
It was unclear what immediate effect the ruling would have on the Salvation Army's religious services and aid work with the homeless, elderly and prison inmates in Moscow.
The 1997 law, championed by the influential Russian Orthodox Church, requires all religious groups to register with Russian authorities. Several groups, particularly foreign-based, have had legal troubles since it was passed and say it limits religious freedoms won with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Salvation Army is also active in other Russian regions where it has not had serious registration troubles.
On Tuesday, Grigoryeva refused the Salvation Army's request to postpone the case. Russian lawyers for the religious charity had argued that the case in Moscow should be postponed pending decisions on appeals filed in higher Russian courts and the European Court of Human Rights.
Col. Kenneth Baillie, who heads the Salvation Army's operations in Russia and four other former communist countries, said the group has faced worse problems in Russia than in any other country under his supervision.
The Russian Orthodox Church has denied it is behind the attempts to shut down the Salvation Army but has said it regards humanitarian activities by the Salvation Army as an attempt to win over believers.
Next month, the Salvation Army will mark its 10th anniversary of operating in post-Soviet Russia. It also operated briefly in czarist Russia before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.