ST. PETERSBURG, February 19 (RAPSI) - A member of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, Vitaly Milonov, sent a letter to Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov requesting an in-depth inspection of the Church of Scientology in St. Petersburg and other Russian regions, the deputy’s press services reports.

According to the press statement, the request followed numerous inquiries from St. Petersburg residents concerned over the opening of the Scientology Church branch in St. Petersburg. The church followers are said to be aggressively promoting their pseudo-religious movement among the youth and students of nearby schools and universities
Milonov says that the Scientology Church “is a typical example of totalitarian cults that aim to brainwash people.”

“They have nothing to do with religion and the church,” he added.

The parliament member believes that the movement forces people to forget traditional Russian cultural and religious values, destroys their idea of their home country and replaces true morals with “a phony spiritual substitute.” He describes scientologists as “fanatics with a sterile consciousness,” who, he believes, lead all kinds of color revolutions.

Milonov claims that Scientology poses a threat to the state and Russian citizens and that this organization must be banned.

Dianetics and Scientology is a religious and philosophic movement established in the US in the early 1950s by L. Ron Hubbard.

The scientific community never recognized it as science.

A resolution passed in 1996 by the lower house of parliament, or the State Duma, classified the Church of Scientology as a destructive religious organization.

The Moscow Regional Court ruled in 2012 that some of Hubbard’s books be included on the Federal List of Extremist Literature and banned from distribution in Russia.