Out of two thousand religious communities in Crimea only eleven were reregistered under Russian law, as the Crimean field mission reports to the UNN press-service.

Reregistration is one of the main challenges in Crimea, including for religious organizations. The government required their reregistration until March 1, 2015. The Crimean field mission on Human Rights has monitored the process of re-Crimean religious communities.

Prior to establishment of the Russian jurisdiction there were over 2,000 religious communities in the peninsula. Of these, over 1,400 were officially registered. According to the Crimean field mission on Human Rights, by February 12, 2015, only some 100 parishes had applied for re-registration, and only 11 had been reregistered.

According to the experts of the Crimean field mission on Human Rights, there are multiple reasons for that: many documents are required, those receiving and those submitting documents lack knowledge, there are long queues. In addition, there are many complaints about fault-finding by registration authorities.

Crimea has two registrationoptions for religious communities. The first is integration into existing Russian structure. The second is registration of a particular parish or denomination. The first way is easier, because it simplifies harmonization of the documents, including the statute. For example, the community of orthodox Jews in Yalta, which was an independent organization, was forced to join the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia. However, not everyone can or wish to register so.

For the second option, you need more coordination. For example, it is necessary to describe the essence of faith. It is necessary to explain the attitude doctrine of the family, to the same-sex marriages, divorces. Crimean field mission noted that registration authorities ask questions about the attitude to the state that are not directly related to religion. The documents submitted for registration are studies in Crimea first, then they are checked by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kyiv Patriarchate is also under the threat of closure. It its parishes are not reregistered, their activity in the Crimea will be considered illegal and the churches can be transferred to the Moscow Patriarchate. The temples inOsovyny  village,Perevalneand Krasnoperekopsk and the temple at Nakhimov School in Sevastopol have already been withdrawn. The cost of renting the Cathedral of St. Volodymyr and Princess Olga of the UOC-KP in Simferopol has been raised up to 1 600 000 USD a year.

In the Catholic Church, in addition to re-registration, there is the issue of priests’ citizenship. Most of them are citizens of Poland and Ukraine. They may stay in the Crimea no more than three months.

Apart from reregistration, the religious communities face the problems with funding, communication and relationships with branches outside Crimea. Unregistered communities cannot pay utilities, since individuals are not entitled to pay bills issued to organizations. For that reason the premises they hold may be withdrawn.

According to the Crimean field mission experts, the uncertainty of registration prevents normal operation of parishes. Therefore, reregistration process needs to be rescheduled. A sharp decrease in the number of parishes and religious communities will negatively affect the situation of religious freedom in the region.