Subject: the Russian 'expansion'
From: [email-masked]
Date: 7 Nov 1999 00:01:57 -0500
Newsgroups: alt.clearing.technology

From clambake, but found by searching www.google.com  with the key words   
'scientology, russia'  over 570 entries!

In summary it looks like the expansion into Russia has begun to tank badly 
after a Russia govt official ran across an old copy of Time Magazine with 
'Scientology, cult of greed and Power' in 1995, by 1997 the cult ws out of 
town and the students in the chemical plant had taken their cultie certs off 
of their walls.

Excerpted below is a small section from a much larger article.  thanks to 
Beevis, American business is now getting the word too.  Another big win for 
Scientology.

I got a big laugh out of the diplomatic approach employed by Ms Heldt as 
written in the first paragraph below.  Cult out winning friends and 
influencing people it appears.  One wonders how much more ruthless they 
would become if they ever came to power.

Now thats a scary thought.   You know the Nazi's were a benevolent social 
organization until they came to power, then the long stated but under rated 
agenda kicked in....and the 'undesireables' were hauled off to extermination 
camps.

Hubbard of course only had a minority 2.5% listed as better off dead, lemmy 
see....2% of 800 million people in the US and Europe....carry the 3, carry 
5... is only 20 million people.   And guess who'd get to decide which 2.5% 
got the gas?

Best Regards, Phil Scott

........After my first publication on Scientology I received a visit from 
Ms. Birte Heldt, a Danish citizen who was then director of the Hubbard 
Humanitarian Center in Moscow. Though she tried to look friendly, the main 
purpose of our encounter soon became evident: "We would like you to know 
that anybody standing in the way of Scientology ends up very badly." "Are 
you threatening me?" I asked. "No, just warning you," she replied.

It almost seemed as though there was a gentleman's agreement of sorts 
amongst the cults about the division of spheres of influence. Scientology 
primarily targeted local administration and heavy (including military) 
industry. They worked in these areas through the Hubbard College of Business 
Administration, proposing to introduce only effective methods of 
administration and raising productivity levels. According the 
Russian-language publicity materials they present to potential clients, 
Hubbard Administration methods (or "tech") are used such thriving 
multinationals as Volvo, Chanel, Boeing, Ford, General Motors, and AGFA. In 
a few years, the Scientologists managed to convert people like Vladimir Fil, 
then the mayor of Perm; Anatoly Boitsev, the chairman of the regional Duma 
of Novgorod province; and many other local officials. Today they have their 
offices in more than thirty Russian cities. They are especially strong in 
Moscow, St Petersburg, Perm, Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, 
Ussolie-Sibirskoye, Kemerovo, and Obninsk. Local administrations in many 
areas became founders and sponsors of local Hubbard Colleges. Mr. Fil 
publicly promised to have his entire city functioning according to Hubbard's 
ideas within a year. Hubbard colleges were opened in many super-secret 
military plants in the Urals; nobody knows how much sensitive information 
they were able to gather. Scientologists attempted to get into the Russian 
military space industry, and became involved with many banks and insurance 
firms. Needless to say, many of the industries they got involved in started 
to have serious difficulties; many eventually went bankrupt.

It is important to note that a certain Mr. Theodorovich, the personal 
secretary and adviser of the first vice-prime minister of Russia, Boris 
Nemtsov, is a graduate of the Hubbard College in Nizhny Novgorod and a 
card-carrying Scientologist.

The Scientologists tried very hard to establish connections with the 
Ministry of the Internal Affairs and to get their Criminon program running 
in Russian prisons, but they had limited success.

One area where the Scientologists were spectacularly successful was health 
care. In August of 1994 they managed to obtain a license from the Ministry 
of Health to deploy a Hubbard treatment known as the Purification Rundown in 
Russia's public health system, and immediately began charging their clients 
from $1,000 to $1,500 each.

It's important to stress that many of the cults present in Russia are 
actively seeking to gain footholds at the highest levels of power, and that 
together they have established a well-connected pro-cult lobby. One of the 
most vociferous members of this lobby is Valery Borshchov, a deputy in the 
Duma and chairman of the Chamber of the Human Rights of the Russian 
President's Political Council. His personal secretary and assistant, Lev 
Levinson, is an open member of Scientology.

The fall of the Iron Curtain prompted the expansion of the cults into Russia 
even as it removed barriers to the spread of information about them. 
Organizations which entered our territory with hopes that their reputation 
in the West would remain unknown were disappointed. Knowledge of their past 
misdeeds and current practices soon reached us, seriously slowing their 
unopposed victorious march through Russia. Many cults that once 
overestimated their strength are now experiencing serious setbacks.

One typical example is that of Scientology in Novgorod. The Hubbard College 
there was established in 1994 by the mammoth Altron chemical plant and 
members of the local government. In just three years, over 400 citizens - 
including most of the staff of the provincial administration, the chairman 
of the provincial Duma, and many of the county administrators graduated from 
the Hubbard College. The Hubbard's teaching spread across the city unopposed 
until November of 1996, when Sergey Darevsky, director of the information 
program on local television, chanced upon a copy of the May 6, 1991 issue of 
Time magazine with the words "Scientology: The Cult of Greed" splashed 
across its cover. Darevsky contacted Moscow, found more information, and 
produced and presented several anti-Scientology programs on local 
television.

In March of 1997 the representative of the provincial administration 
announced on local television that the provincial administration was cutting 
all ties with the Hubbard College. Soon the Scientologists had to move out 
from their spacious premises in the city center. All the workers from the 
local administration immediately removed the Hubbard College diplomas from 
their office walls. The only high-ranking local politician who still 
supports the cult is Anatoly Boitsev, chairman of the provincial Duma.

At the end of 1996 Vladimir Fil, who failed to convert all of Perm to 
Scientology, lost his bid for re-election, and most of his "Scientology 
team" went down to defeat with him. But Scientology suffered its most 
crushing setback on June 19, 1996, when the national Ministry of Health 
canceled the license formerly granted the Purification Rundown and forbade 
the use of all Scientology methods in public medicine. At the same time the 
Unification Church began to realize that despite their massive investment in 
Russia they had very little to show for it. They stopped funding their 
projects, but it was too late: both the Scientologists and Unification 
Church had serious problems with the St. Petersburg tax police in 1996-1997. 
The Saratov branch of the Moon movement had trouble with the police over a 
case of document forgery, and many more cults found themselves before the 
authorities.

  ****** Hi OSA, did you find the Belgian raids entertaining? ***

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