Russian Orthodox Radicals Seek Case Against Academic

Vitaly Ginsburg (file photo) (RFE/RL) July 24, 2007 -- The radical Russian Orthodox movement Narodny Sobor today appealed to the Moscow Prosecutor's Office to start a criminal case against Russian Nobel laureate Vitaly Ginsburg.

In a statement, Narodny Sobor said Ginsburg, who won the 2003 Nobel Prize in physics, made remarks that offend Orthodox sensibilities.

The complaint came one day after Ginsburg and several other Russian academics signed a letter to President Vladimir Putin expressing concern that the Orthodox Church's influence is threatening to erode the separation between church and state.

Ginsburg told Ekho Moskvy radio that the Orthodox Church is "strongly promoting religion to the detriment of science."

(Interfax, Ekho Moskvy radio)

Rising Russian Nationalism

Orthodox believers and nationalists heckling a gay-rights rally in Moscow in May 2006 (RFE/RL)

A THREAT TO CIVIL, RELIGIOUS LIBERTIES: Several leading experts told a briefing hosted by RFE/RL and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom that several mounting trends in Russia are posing a growing threat to human rights, especially for members of the country's ethnic and religious minorities.