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Moscow dismisses U.S. Congress concern over religious freedom

Moscow, March 20, Interfax - The Russian Foreign Ministry has described as strange a resolution passed by the U.S. House of Representatives stating that Russia violates the rights of believers and restricts religious freedom.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the resolution effectively alleges that members of certain religions that are non-traditional for Russia have had problems regarding their registration and the opportunity to freely practice their faith.

"Russia, a country whose contemporary civilization has been developing in the Eastern Christian tradition (from 60% to 80% of the population consider themselves Orthodox believers), currently has laws regulating religious practices that are unprecedented in their liberality according to European standards," the Foreign Ministry said.

"The specifics of peculiar American assessments of the legislative practices of foreign states in such a delicate sphere as freedom of conscience has long been known," the statement says.

"The American model of legal regulation of these problems is very exotic, as it is based on the declaration of absolute formal equality among all religions and their practical elimination from public affairs. Such a legal model is not used anywhere in the world but the U.S.," the Foreign Ministry said.

"The laws of an overwhelming majority of European and Asian countries, whose civilizations have developed on the basis of traditional religions, give obvious legal preference to one or, as an exception, several such traditional religions. It is worth noting that the attempt by American lawmakers to pass judgment on the specifics of the legal regulation of aspects of freedom of conscience outside the American territory looks at the least strange," it said.

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