Religion in Russia

SIR – On BBC1’S recent Putin’s Russia with David Dimbleby, Mr Dimbleby claimed that under President Putin Russian citizens are “free now to practise their faith”.

This is nonsense. As has been widely reported, the authorities in Russia are increasingly intimidating, persecuting and raiding the homes and places of worship of those who practise religions other than that of the “state-approved” – but poorly attended – Russian Orthodox Church.

Many, even the frail and elderly, have been arrested on what are essentially charges of “thought crime”, with some hospitalised due to the vicious interrogations.

Some have fled over the border to escape the terror of being arrested by thuggish masked police and detained – or even imprisoned – on trumped-up charges of “extremism”.

Despite the current “gloss” of the World Cup, it is ridiculous to suggest that Russians have freedom of worship under the fiercely autocratic Mr Putin.

Russia’s flagrant and aggressive breach of its own international commitment to promote and ensure “freedom of religious belief and expression” should not be ignored.

Dr John F Harvey

Dinas Powys, Vale of Glamorgan