^The Post-Soviet Treasure Hunt: Time, Space, and Necropolitics in Siberian Buddhism ANYA BERNSTEIN, Comparative Studies in Society and History
Vol. 53, No. 3 (JULY 2011), pp. 623-653, Cambridge University Press
^Lawrence A. Uzzell. The Future of Freedom in Russia (ed. William J. vanden Heuvel: Templeton Foundation Press, 2000), p. 168: "Religious freedom grew steadily in Russia from about the mid-1980s to approximately 1993. ... The real religious freedom that existed in practice was ... a result of the turmoil and chaos of the early 1990s, which prevented the Russian elite from keeping a steady hand on things. That hand is firmer now, and there has been a steady deterioration of religious freedom over the past five years. In 1994, the first provincial law restricting the rights of religious minorities was passed, in Tula, about two hundred miles south of Moscow. About one-third of Russia's provinces have passed similar laws since then, and in 1997 the national government passed a law explicitly distinguishing between first-class 'religious organizations' and second-class 'religious groups,' which have far few rights."