A Moscow court on May 4 ordered the 2-month detention of a Falun Gong practitioner for her beliefs as an investigation is pending, the first such decision in the country as Russia increasingly leans toward communist China.
Natalya Minenkova, 46, will be detained until June 27 under a controversial law against “carrying out the activities of an undesirable organization,” the Tushinsky District Court of Moscow ruled. The list of "undesirable organizations" includes independent media outlets, journalism groups, and American think tanks, among others.
"By ordering the detention of Ms. Minenkova, Russia joins communist China as the only other country where a judge has incarcerated a citizen simply for meditating and aspiring to live by Falun Gong’s teachings of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance,” Levi Browde, executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center, told The Epoch Times. “This shameful act further erodes freedoms in Russia, and demonstrates Russia's growing, and disconcerting, ties to China's communist regime."
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan, when asked about the court ruling on Saturday, said that it “does not come as a surprise to me that Russia would engage in repressive behavior against all kinds of people, whether it is on issues related to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion.”
“Russia is increasingly relying on China for a lot of things, particularly as they have lost other avenues, economically, technologically and otherwise. So this is a relationship that we look at, closely, carefully,” he said.
The trend is also worrying Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.).
'False Portrayal'
The prosecutors began a criminal investigation targeting Ms. Minenkova on April 27, a week before the raid, court records obtained by The Epoch Times show. In the court record, they accused her of committing a “serious crime against the foundation of the constitutional order and security of the state,” noting that she had organized Falun Gong-related meetings and distributed Falun Gong literature.
Mr. Browde argued that such activities hardly constitute a crime.
“The sum total of what Ms. Minenkova was doing is bringing music to a park and guiding others to do meditation exercises, while hosting readings of spiritual texts in her home, all as a volunteer because she wanted to share the benefits she received from practicing Falun Dafa with others.” Mr. Browde stated. “Falun Gong is neither a ‘sect’ nor is Ms. Minenkova a ‘leader,’ illustrating the completely false portrayal of this case by Russia’s government-controlled press.”
In questioning one of the two witnesses before the trial, an investigator asked about the size of the group in the country, the main books of Falun Gong, and whether they had attended Falun Gong events abroad.
People familiar with Ms. Minenkova described her as kind, always smiling, and ready to help others. She quit drinking and smoking after taking up the practice in 2010, after seeing her mother’s poor vision improve since practicing Falun Gong.
"It's no secret that one of the CCP's primary exports is oppression, and that's very concerning."