St. Petersburg deputies privately initiate a referendum on the transfer of St. Isaac's Cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church

Maxim Reznik, head of the cultural commission of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, announced plans to initiate a referendum on the transfer of St. Isaac's Cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church. The referendum procedure does not imply that it can be initiated by the Legislative Assembly. Therefore, MPs will put forward this idea privately.

“The Legislative Assembly itself does not initiate anything,” Boris Vishnevsky, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, explained to Novaya Gazeta. - The intention to hold a referendum is still with specific individuals. We still need to look at the initiative from the legal side, whether a referendum is possible. But it is clear that the first step is to send an application to the city election commission.”

The deputy told Novaya Gazeta that the city election committee of St. Petersburg must first approve the idea of ​​a referendum. Then the word for the Legislative Assembly.

“I am for any referendum where the interests of society and the authorities collide, but the problem is that the political will not to hold referendums at the initiative of the people has not disappeared,” deputy Vishnevsky is sure. - What was the last referendum held in Russia, do you remember? Only about the enlargement of some areas. But this referendum was also initiated by the authorities.”

Vishnevsky gave an example from his own experience - he himself tried five times to arrange a referendum on the construction of the Okhta Center - a skyscraper of Gazprom. “We were cut down three times at the level of the election commission and twice at the level of the legislature,” recalls Vishnevsky.

Boris Vishnevsky appealed to the lawyers of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, from whom he hopes to receive an opinion on his two amendments to the Federal Law "On the transfer of state or municipal property to religious organizations for religious purposes." Vishnevsky proposes to ban any transfer of objects of cultural significance to religious organizations. And also in the event that for 25 years an object of religious significance was in the department of local cultural authorities. The deputy promises to introduce amendments for consideration in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg. And he does not hide the fact that they are needed to resolve the issues that have arisen regarding the transfer of St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Savior on Spilled Blood, the Museum of the Arctic - to the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church.

“The funny thing is that St. Isaac's Cathedral has never belonged to the church, so there can be no talk of returning it. The cathedral was built for state money, the church only used it. And now he can use it for worship,” said Boris Vishnevsky.