More than 5,000 totalitarian cults are active in Moscow, warned a City Hall roundtable on destructive sectarian activities.
The Moscow Patriarchy was active on the gathering, with many ecclesiastical agencies represented.
A million Muscovites are linked to totalitarian sects, said the chief of a centre to rehabilitate victims of non-established religions. He quoted expert evaluations, on which five million belong to sects or are subject to their close attention all over the country.
12,000 victims of occult practices have applied for help to the Centre of St. John of Kronstadt within the five years since it was established in the Moscow-based Krutitsky mission of the Russian Orthodox Church. More than 400 men and women quit sects to join the Russian Orthodox flock over the last two years, said Father Anatoly, centre supervisor.
The clergy of the established churches conventionally classify sects into Protestant-oriented, pseudo-Buddhist, and Russian neo-pagan. The Witnesses of Jehova, Reverend Moon's Unity Church and the Church of Scientology are considered to present the greatest danger.