WASHINGTON (ABP) -- The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly March 15 to call on Russian officials to work more diligently to protect religious freedom across their nation.

The resolution, passed 411-1, expressed the sense of the House that "the Russian Federation should fully protect the freedoms of all religious communities without distinction, whether registered [or] unregistered, as stipulated by the Russian Constitution and international standards."

Recent years have seen several reports of minority religious groups and houses of worship being attacked and destroyed, often by mobs influenced by leaders from the majority Russian Orthodox Church.

According to the United States Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, "Conditions have deteriorated for minority religions at the regional and local level in some areas of Russia, and the restrictive law on freedom of conscience and religion continues to disadvantage many minority religious groups considered 'non-traditional.' Reports of violent acts against minority religious communities sometimes committed by the police and rarely investigated, continue to sporadically but consistently arise."

The resolution asserts that "over the past 2 years there have been an estimated 10 arson attacks on unregistered Protestant churches, with little or no effective response by law enforcement officials to bring the perpetrators to justice." It also calls on the Bush administration to "continue to raise concerns" with Russian officials over violations of religious freedom, "especially indigenous denominations not well known in the United States."

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