Update on Recent Violence in Russia

Update on Recent Violence in Russia

Moscow, Russia....[ESD Staff/ANN]

Four teenage suspects have been arrested on suspicion of murdering the night watchman at a Seventh-day Adventist Church in central Russia. The murdered guard was found at the Cheboksary Adventist Church in December, according to regional church leader Vitaly Bakhtin. The murder case will soon begin proceeding through the local court system.

Also in the Volga-Vyatskaya region of Russia, police continue to investigate the Feb. 4 arson of an Adventist Church in Saransk. Bakhtin reported in early March that no arrests have been made.

In another central Russian city, Nizhnekamsk, investigators have concluded that the assailant who knifed an Adventist pastor's son last November was mentally ill.

Adventist leaders in the area are unsure whether or not the trend of violence against religious minorities is coincidental. Earlier this winter the church brought the recent attacks to the attention of a top regional representative of the Russian presidential administration. He has since urged police to pay careful attention to these and other investigations of potential hate crimes.

"The laws in our region are adequate," says Bakhtin, "but in some areas they are not always implemented."