Moscow -- The Russian Justice Ministry expert Alexander Dvorkin has expressed concern about plans to hold a conference in the Federation Council premises, in which members of the Korean Unification Church, also known as the Moon Church (founded by Sun Myung Moon), are expected to participate.
"The conference will center on cooperation between the European and Russian branches of the Universal Peace Federation, the Moon sect's head organization," Dvorkin, the chief of the Justice Ministry's council of experts on religions, told Interfax-Religion.
"The official organizer of the event is the Federation Council's International Affairs Committee, and the theme announced is Peace and Security in a Multi-Ethnic Society: Russia's and Europe's experience," Dvorkin said.
It will be organized with support from senator, retired major general Aslambek Aslakhanov, who received the Peace Ambassador title from the Universal Peace Federation, he said.
About 50 peace ambassadors from Russia, Moldova, Ukraine and the Baltic states are expected to attend. The European Union will be represented by a Dutch ex-defense minister.
The head of the Russian branch of the Universal Peace Federation Konstantin Krylov, the chief of the Federation's Eurasian branch and the Unification Church's curator in Russia Frenchman Marion Jacques Regis, and director of the Unification Church's Northeastern Continent, Japanese citizen Tokuno Eiji will be in charge of the conference.
"It seems the times are gone when leader of the odious totalitarian sector Sun Myung Moon was received by President Gorbachev, while representatives of the sect would be welcomed as insiders at various ministries. The whole repulsive truth about the Moon sect has long been exposed, made public, read and understood, while the Moon followers, expectedly enough, became personae non gratae in our high-level corridors. By all accounts, not in all of them," Dvorkin said.
No commentaries from the Federation Council are available to Interfax so far.
