The Kremlin on Monday backed a new version of a controversial draft law on religion and dismissed charges that it was discriminatory and anti-constitutional.
Itar-Tass news agency quoted a senior Kremlin official as saying that the revised draft, approved by the lower house of parliament on Friday, addressed the concerns expressed by President Boris Yeltsin when he vetoed the original."In its new form, the Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations" contradicts neither the constitution nor international obligations," Tass said, quoting the head of the Kremlin's main state-judicial directorate, Ruslan Orekhov.
Yeltsin's veto followed strong criticism of the original draft from human-rights activists, the U.S. Senate and the Vatican, who said that it could lead to discrimination against religious groups such as Roman Catholics and Protestants.
Russian news agencies have said the issue was raised in a note sent by President Clinton last week to Yeltsin ahead of Vice President Al Gore's visit to Moscow this week.
The Tass report did not say outright whether Yeltsin would approve the new draft, which will go to him for approval if it is backed by the upper house.
But it made clear he did not share the concern expressed by human-rights activists and several minority religious groups in Russia that the new draft could also be used against mainstream faiths seen as competing with the powerful Orthodox Church.
Orekhov said that any group that could prove it was operating in Russia 15 years ago had nothing to fear.
"Of course . . . no one can question that Catholics were in Russia 15, 100 and more years ago. And a refusal to register then could well be taken up in court," Tass quoted Orekhov as saying.