Kommersant
Fourth Graders to Study Religion
Yesterday the Ministry of Education and Science issued an order introducing Religious Education and Secular Ethics into the school program. The subject will be compulsory from the next academic year. Parents should already be choosing which religion their children will study. There is still much controversy surrounding the issue. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin believes that it should be taught by “priests and theologists.”
Religious Education and Secular Ethics will be included in the fourth grade program, with 34 academic hours of teaching set aside for it (it was previously divided into two parts, one to be taught in the last quarter of the fourth grade and the other in the first quarter of the fifth grade).
Students can choose one of six modules: World Religions, Secular Ethics and the basics of Russian Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Buddhism or Judaism. The modules must be chosen by the beginning of March so that schools can order a sufficient number of textbooks.
The order was issued after a long dispute between the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and the Education Ministry. The Church insisted on introducing Russian Orthodox Culture into schools, while the ministry argued that religion has no place in a secular school. A compromise was reached: students can choose for themselves. Schools in 19 regions already tried out the subject in the last quarter of the 2010 academic year. According to statistics, 42% of parents signed their children up to Secular Ethics, with 18% preferring World Religions. About 30% chose Russian Orthodox Christianity, 9% Islam, and 1% each for Buddhism and Judaism.
Both officials and religious leaders stressed that the subject should be taught by ordinary teachers. “No priests in schools,” Education Minister Andrei Fursenko has repeatedly said. This, however, might change. At his meeting with religious leaders on Wednesday, Vladimir Putin said that he believes these subjects should be taught by religious experts.
For the clergymen, this was a surprising development which provoked another controversy. “Originally, we were against priests teaching in secular schools. They should only teach in Sunday schools,” Gulnar Gaziyeva of the Russian Council of Muftis told Kommersant. “This is a secular view of faith, therefore it must be taught by school teachers,” said Rabbi Zinovy Kogan, Vice President of the Russian Congress of Jewish Religious Associations. Andrei Balzhirov, a permanent representative of the Buddhist traditional sangha, refrained from commenting.
“There is no need for priests to teach this subject,” said German Demidov of the ROC. Instead, the ROC is proposing that teachers be approved by the clergy. “Religious organizations must have the casting vote in assigning teachers of religious matters in schools,” Demidov added. He did not cite any particular criteria for such an assessment, stating only that teachers “must have reverence, respect and understanding for the Church.”
The ROC also claims that teaching of the subject should be extended beyond the fourth grade and that first graders as well as high school students should learn about religion.
Vedomosti
FAS to Go After Foreign Corporate Offenders on Their Home Turf
If an anti-corruption battle is less than victorious in Russia, it could be exported to other countries. The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) intends to tip off foreign law enforcement agencies on suspected companies.
Addressing a pharmaceutical conference in Russia, Timofei Nizhegorodtsev of the FAS (head of the Directorate for Social and Commerce Oversight) said corruption was one of the ways a foreign company could dominate the Russian market. The FAS suggested that criminal investigations could be launched against suspected companies in their home countries. He explained the possible mechanisms that could be used in cooperation with the relevant agencies in the United States, the EU and in the UK.
Nizhegorodtsev described how this might work. For example, a Western company refuses to sign a contract with a local supplier, prompting the supplier to complain to the FAS. The FAS investigates the validity of the complaint, and if it finds that the company in question cooperated with a single exclusive supplier that regularly wins public tenders, it has a pretext for verifying the bid documentation. If the documents cover one specific commodity, the FAS has every reason to suspect the company of corruption and would then promptly alert the relevant foreign agency, such as the U.S. Department of Justice.
The FAS needs outside assistance because its capacity to influence multinational companies is limited. Vegas Lex lawyer, Maria Borzova, offered an example. Last year, the FAS filed a claim against a foreign company that refused to deliver products to certain contractors. The company responded that it could not cooperate with the client because the client was breaching America’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Nevertheless, the same contractor was working with other foreign companies, something the U.S. Department of Justice might have been interested in.
Western regulatory agencies have much greater authority in these kinds of cases. FCPA-related trials can result in heavy fines for the companies and criminal prosecution for their managers.
Moskovskie Novosti
Opposition Parties: Minimum Required Party Membership Too Low
President Medvedev’s proposal to reduce the membership minimum required for political party registration seems to have scared both the ruling party and the opposition. At yesterday’s Open Microphone session in the State Duma, representatives of all parties called for the required minimum to be increased to at least several thousand people.
The draft law proposed by the president reduces the required minimum membership to register a political party to 500. The Duma will consider the bill at a special session on February 28. Parties not represented in the Duma have also been invited to take part. They were also present at yesterday’s discussion and called on their colleagues in parliament not to make hasty decisions.
Sergei Mitrokhin, head of the Yabloko party, suggested that the minimum membership should be set at 5,000 people. “I am not afraid of beer lovers’ or sexual minorities’ parties coming through,” Mitrokhin said.
However, the new requirements should make it impossible for “one-man” parties, in essence publicity vehicles for wealthy individuals, to emerge, said Mitrokhin. He also suggested that party membership should be verified by the Central Election Commission, as opposed to the Justice Ministry.
Vladimir Kashin from the Communist Party went even further, warning the deputies that the emergence of too many parties of the beer lovers’ type could result in complete chaos and disrupt the proper functioning of the state. “We backed the president’s initiative in the first reading. But the 500-member minimum is unacceptable, it’s totally unreasonable. We propose setting the minimum at 10,000 members,” Kashin said.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, also spoke out against the proposed membership minimum. He said having 50 parties on a ballot will not only confuse voters, but will also create problems for ballot processing by the electronic ballot reading machines.
Vladislav Inozemtsev from the Right Cause party also suggested adjusting the minimum membership requirement. In addition, he proposed banning the practice which allows elected deputies to give up their seats in favor of other members on their party list.
Representatives of the ruling United Russia party avoided direct criticism of the president’s proposal. Andrei Vorobyov, head of the United Russia parliamentary group, told the newspaper that the minimum membership requirement will be finalized during the second reading of the draft bill.
A source in the United Russia leadership confirmed the party’s intention to maintain the liberal spirit of the president’s proposal as far as possible. He said, however, that the minimum membership requirement of 500 people is likely to be changed. Most probably, it will be set at several thousand people during the second reading of the draft bill.
Deputies will also have an opportunity to share their concerns with President Dmitry Medvedev, who is scheduled to meet with the heads of the parties on February 15.
RIA Novosti is not responsible for the content of outside sources.
