Livna (AsiaNews/ agencies)-  "Neo-paganism" has gathered such a following in the former Soviet Union that organizations, seminars and books are sprouting up throughout the country, claiming adherents. According to Viktor Shnirelman, compiler of  the book "Neo-paganism on the Expanses of Euroasia", St. Petersburg has become the main center of Russian neo-paganism, though cults and organized 'churches' have spread throughout every part of the country.

On May 13th there was the arrests of three suspects in two incidents of arson against the church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God in the city of Orel, Western Russia. In February of this year in Orel, vandals at the Russian Orthodox church broke windows, destroyed bookstalls, and attempted to set the iconostasis, which was under restoration, on fire. They left a slogan on the walls saying, "The Jewish God will depart, praise to the gods" and a symbol resembling a nazi swastika.  Later that month, in the same church, 250 boxes of devotional candles worth 30,000 rubles were set on fire in the building's basement. 

Not far away in the same province, a worker in the Sergius Church, in the city of Livna, discovered a note in the donation box containing a threat to set the church roof on fire. The incidents at the Orel church were mentioned in the note. An investigation led by the Directorate of Internal Affairs, which specializes in monitoring radical youth and occult activity, led to the arrest of 3 young people. A 23-year old unemployed graduate of the Orel Institute of Culture and Art admitted to the crimes, stating he had recently converted to paganism, and had been drunk during the incident.  Another two suspects, both 19-year-old students of the same Institute, were also arrested.

"Traditional pagan beliefs have never been forgotten. Now they are being expressed more openly," Shnirelman writes.

 In Siberia's Omsk province this month, a provincial court ordered the liquidation of three public pagan organizations. The Ancient Russian Church of Orthodox Old Believers of Inglia, the Asgard Slavic Community, and the Slavic Community of the Temple of the Wisdom of Perun were found to be in violation of federal legislation because of " propaganda and display of the symbolism that is similar enough to Nazi symbolism as to cause confusion, propaganda of the supremacy of the white race and disparagement of national dignity."

Russia was a pagan country until introduced to Christianity in 988AD. Now, Russian Orthodoxy is the country's largest religion, though many of its members claim only nominal belief (J.C.)