Constitutionalization of Opinion Freedom in the Context of a Secular State and Freedom of Conscience in the Russian Federation

Abstract

The article considers the process of normative and judicial-interpretative constitutionalization of the secular state, freedom of conscience and religion in the Russian Federation. Based on the materials of the European Court of human rights, the constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, legislative acts of domestic and foreign constitutional law, the practice of understanding the secular state and protecting freedom of conscience, protecting the autonomy of religious associations is studied. The author comes to the conclusion that the basis of the domestic constitutionalization of the secular state was not to limit religion and its influence on the state, but to protect the rights of believers from state interference and the imposition of atheistic ideology. Analysis of European practice shows that the main manifestation of secularism is freedom of conscience and freedom of worldview, and not the state status (or lack thereof) of a particular religious denomination. The difference between the Russian constitutionalization of freedom of religion from the practice of protecting freedom of religion under the ECHR is thrust to the sovereignty and the nationalization of the religious space in Russia, which is manifested in the mechanism of regulation of missionary activities of foreign religious organizations. The Russian Federation is on the path of forming a cooperative model of a secular state with close interaction (partnership) of the state with traditional Russian confessions.