Russian Court Jails American Pastor
An American pastor, who has been to Russia 12 times and contributed much to society there has been sentenced to 3 years in prison. Phillip H. Miles brought into the country a $25 box of hunting bullets as a gift for a fellow pastor. Apparently, he had to declare it at customs, but that wasn’t written on the customs form, and he had previously asked the airline, who told him there would be no problem. Even stranger, he was initially stopped at the border entering the country and told that he violated the law by not declaring the bullets, but then he was set free. He continued on to Perm, where he gave his friend the present. Upon returning to the airport and attempting to leave the country, five days later, he was detained, and has been in jail since February.
This story is shocking on several levels. I have never been stopped upon entering Russia. Never. Not once. That includes the first time, when I must have looked sorely out of place. I’ve even tried to have my bags verified, and they usually just wave me by, as if I’m bothering them.
When you enter the country, you have to fill out a customs declaration, including weapons, drugs, technology, cash, food, etc. I always filled it out, even though the border guards never checked it. In theory, you present the customs form to the Border Patrol who checks it, and inspects your bags if they see fit (after having been put through an x-ray machine). Then they stamp it. A couple of times they actually took the paper and stamped it, but usually not. In theory, you’re supposed to show that same customs declaration when you leave the country, and explain any discrepancies. Again, I don’t think I’ve ever had to actually show my declaration upon leaving the country. Maybe things are a lot tighter these days. Though I doubt it.
Thinking back though, I’m not sure I would have written down “bullets” on the form. If I had weapons, sure, and this is clearly related to weapons, but I might have overlooked it. That he was arrested for such a tiny thing is the most shocking. I would have thought that he could have out of it by explaining that he didn’t know, and then adding it on to the form. Did he not have an interpreter with him?? Barring that, he could have possibly paid a bribe, calling it a “fine” (штраф). Of course, he would have definitely needed an interpreter for that. Maybe being a pastor would have discounted that option…
3 years? For a $25 box of bullets?? And why did they let him through the first time, then decide to pick him up on the way out?? It just doesn’t add up. I think someone must have done something behind the scenes to make this conviction stick. The border guards probably let him go the first time, figuring that he was just a dumb, but innocent and harmless, foreigner. Afterwards, someone decided that it was worth pursuing.
The only thing I can think of is the protestant angle. Protestants aren’t looked on so well in Russia. “Protestant” is pretty much synonymous with “Cult Member” in Russian (протестанты = сектанты). Regular people think they’re weird, and the Orthodox church does a lot to hinder and diminish protestant activity in Russia (and the former Soviet Union). Why? Because unlike the Orthodox church, they’re actually growing and attracting youth. They’re a market competitor, and they’ll use the power of the state to keep their monopoly. Politically, protestants are seen as an alien, outside, culture, and a threat to the Russian identity. Moreover, they’re characterized as a front for “colored revolution” groups and western influence.
The pressures and closures were much worse in the past, and most protestant churches are doing just fine these days. If anything, many in the Russian protestant community speak about the challenges of prosperity. However, that doesn’t mean that the struggle is over, and that protestants are accepted members of Russian society, they’re not.
I don’t know that any of these has any bearing on this pastor’s case, it’s pure speculation. But it’s the only reason I can come up with for such a bizarre event. Seriously, 3 years???
Video of Hillsong Kiev, a huge church in Ukraine, which recently opened a branch in Moscow:
[...] Lex Libertas, who has lived (and is still living?) in Russia, thinks something odd is afoot: [...]
Pingback by American pastor jailed in Russia « Eurociao — April 21, 2008 @ 11:47 pm
The form does say weapons AND ammunition in both Russian and English. It has said that every time I have entered Russia for the last ten years. It is also printed in LARGE text in both Russian and English where you pick up your checked luggage at the airport. He should have known not to bring in ammunition. It was stupid of him to bring the ammunition into the country. However, three years is unreasonable.
There was an American arrested once for spying because he had a GPS system which was illegal to import (at least at the time). He wrote it on his customs form but that did not stop him from being held in prison for sometime and then deported persona non grata.
I have been checked before coming into the country — they x-rayed me one time. I think that I have been x-rayed twice coming back into the US. The last time I left Russia, I was patted down from head to toe just before I got on the plane. You should have seen the look of surprise on the guy’s face when he asked what I had in my waistband and I pulled out a stack of six passports! I had them for me, my wife and daughter so they were all legit but he looked them over very well before letting me go on.
Comment by Russophile — April 22, 2008 @ 2:06 am
By the way, I noticed that you changed your RSS feed. The whole text, tags and all are coming into my RSS reader now. The next time you post, check out how it comes across here: http://www.russophile.com/other_russia_blogs/
When I have the chance (every other day or so) I am cleaning it up to be shorter and without the tags so that the posts look like this: http://www.russophile.com/other_russia_blogs/28659-lex_libertas_putin_marrying_olympic_gymnast_alina_kabaeva.html
I also delete from the list any of your posts not related to Russia (although I still read them first.)
Let me know if you would rather me remove you from the list. Thanks, Russophile
Comment by Russophile — April 22, 2008 @ 2:25 am
I don’t remember completely, but I think you’re right that the customs forms I used included “ammunition,” but they may have been changed recently. I remember that just as I was leaving Russia last September, they changed the migration cards so that they are now only in Russian, with no English translation. Again, it’s speculation, but the customs forms may also have been changed.
Maybe they’re getting more stringent with their security procedures. It wouldn’t surprise me, given the recent trends as a whole.
Comment by Owen — April 22, 2008 @ 12:41 pm
Hillsong Kiev is cool!
Was the arrested pastor associated with Hillsong?
Can anyone translate the words of the song? It sounded kinda familiar, but I couldn’t tell whether it was a worship song translated to Russian or originally written in Russian.
Comment by Phinehas — April 22, 2008 @ 5:27 pm
No, I don’t think he was associated with Hillsong. I just used it because it’s an example of the thriving protestant community in Ukraine. I’m pretty sure that all the Ukr songs are translations of the English Hillsong works.
This song in particular is “Evermore.”
http://www.lyricsdownload.com/hillsong-united-evermore-lyrics.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZCInHGfv2o
The lyrics aren’t exactly the same, but the meaning is close. It’s hard to translate literally and still keep any sense of aesthetics.
Comment by Owen — April 22, 2008 @ 10:58 pm
I was given some trouble attempting to leave Russia once, thanks to some kind of weirdness regarding my exit visa. The border guard misread it as reading “од 15-ого Июня” instead of “до 15-ого Июня” apparently, and informed me I couldn’t leave the country yet and should go change my ticket to two days later. When I pointed out her error, she spent several minutes staring at it, and concluded that she needed to call in help. Another guard (with a large gun, naturally) came over and led me away for questioning about who I was, what I’d been doing in Russia, and what was in my bags (doubly weird since I’d already checked everything I wasn’t carrying on). Once he was satisfied he made me wait until another man with various stripes and badges came over and ran through the same set of questions. After that was over he went into some mysterious door, and I was told by the guard with the large gun I would have to wait a while longer.
At this point I was getting rather nervous, as this all seemed like much too large of a fuss over a simple mistaken preposition on a form that they’d probably all seen thousands of times. Fortunately, about ten minutes later a fourth man came out and told me I was free to go, and I should go back through the short line for diplomats and the like where that clerk had been told to approve my exit visa. In a way it was extremely strange, but in another way it seemed very typical of the hit-or-miss enforcement of some of Russia’s stringent laws - most people slide right by, but when they actually do stop you it can escalate to crazy levels for no apparent logical reason.
That said, I do think that this pastor was in fact targeted to some extent because of his religion and his obvious interest in Russia (12 trips is more than enough to put you on the wrong peoples’ radar, as I’m sure you know better than I). Of course, the excessive sentence probably won’t actually deter many evangelists from going to Russia for missionary work, and will primarily succeed in adding one more horror story to the list that keep tourists and investors from seriously considering Russia as a destination. Hopefully they’ll come to their senses about it, but I’m definitely not going to hold my breath…
Comment by Kari — April 23, 2008 @ 9:18 am
It’s really 囧 story.
Comment by 囧囧 — April 24, 2008 @ 1:09 am