The Human Rights Center VRNS asks the Government of the Moscow Region to prevent the closure of the Orthodox shelter

On March 12, the Human Rights Center of the World Russian People's Cathedral addressed the government of the Moscow region in connection with the situation around the Orthodox shelter "Nikita" in the village of Byvalino, Pavlovo-Posad district. According to the document, "On February 2, 2007, after checking the sanitary and epidemiological station, the district court considered the case of violation of Article 6.3 (violation of sanitary rules) of the Code of Administrative Offenses and issued a warning to the director of the shelter, hegumen Ambrose (Shevchuk). In turn, the district prosecutor's office decided to aggravate the sanctions against the shelter and filed a protest to the regional court, demanding to suspend its activities for up to 90 days.The reason for such harsh measures was the insufficient number of toilet bowls, foot washers, urinals, washing tubs and cutting tables, as well as the incorrect configuration of the premises.

Thus, now there is a real danger of stopping the activities of the "Nikita" shelter and resettling its pupils in different orphanages, where conditions, as practice shows, will not necessarily be better. If this happens, then dozens of children will receive severe psychological trauma, and the implementation of the most important direction of the charitable programs of the Russian Orthodox Church will be called into question. The fact is that if before 1917 the Church had a sufficient number of buildings specially adapted for shelters, then in modern times it has to be content with only those premises that it considered necessary to transfer. Unfortunately, many of them require significant and expensive reconstruction, which is not always possible to carry out within the prescribed time frame."

“Taking into account the fact that the leadership of the Nikita shelter is ready to eliminate the identified violations as soon as it manages to raise the necessary funds, such harsh sanctions against him look excessive and unjustified,” the authors of the appeal note. the government of the Moscow region to intervene in this conflict and save the shelter from closing. For our part, we are ready to provide the Nikita shelter with the necessary legal assistance, as well as help other shelters with similar problems."

On March 29, the Union of Orthodox Citizens expressed its indignation at the situation around the shelter. "To our deep regret, the atavisms of militant atheism are still capable of metastasizing and infecting the minds of modern officials. To protect their selfish interests, they consider it possible to cripple the fate of hundreds of orphans," the SPG . said The Union called on "all honest human rights activists, politicians, journalists" to come out in defense of the "Nikita" orphanage and other Orthodox orphanages threatened with closure.

On March 29, police officers arrived at the shelter and demanded a list of the children in the shelter. "They explained this by the need to track minors in order to combat delinquency," said lawyer Ekaterina Anosova. However, the police did not provide an official request, so the staff of the shelter did not send the list to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

On April 3, a protest rally against the closure of the shelter was held in front of the administration building of Pavlovsky Posad. About 50 people took part in it.

Later, Izvestia reported that the picket was initiated by representatives of the Local movement, but the action was canceled at the last moment. The day before, the Ministry of Education of the Moscow Region sent a letter to the guardianship authorities about the inadmissibility of children living at churches.

On April 11, the head of the Just Russia faction, Alexander Babakov, turned to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, Yuri Chaika, with a request to check the validity of the actions of the prosecutor's office of the Moscow Region in relation to the Nikita shelter.

Sources

• Appeal of the Human Rights Center of the World Russian People's Council on the situation with the shelter "Nikita" // Interfax-religion. 2007. March 12.
• The Union of Orthodox Citizens is Outraged by the Continued Persecution of the Nikita Church Orphanage // There. March 29.
• The police visited the Orthodox shelter "Nikita" // Interfax-religion. 2007. March 30.
• A protest rally against the closure of the Orthodox shelter "Nikita" took place in the Moscow region // There. April 3rd.
• Media materials: "Locals did without "Locals". Residents of the Moscow region protest against the closure of an Orthodox orphanage" // Interfax-religion. 2007. April 4. (Article by B. Klin from Izvestia)
• "Fair Russia" asks the Prosecutor General's Office to look into the situation around the Orthodox shelter near Moscow // There. 11 April. *