Metropolitan Kirill, one of the Russian Orthodox Church's most senior officials, has dismissed suggestions that controversial legislation being considered by the Russian parliament will restrict religious freedom in Russia.

Speaking to journalists in Geneva on 11 September, when he was attending the central committee of the World Council of Churches, Metropolitan Kirill claimed that if the legislation were passed, new religious organisations - even worshippers of "arctic penguins", he added ironically - would be able to carry out most of their religious activities unhindered.

They would have the right "to celebrate worship, hold processions, publish books, teach adults and children," Metropolitan Kirill said, but for 15 years they would not be registered with the state authorities, which would mean that they would not be able to own property in Russia. (Critics of the proposed legislation have suggested that the probationary period would severely limit the rights of new religious organisations.)

"If, during 15 years, it becomes clear that penguin worshippers do not put bombs in public palaces, do not kidnap children from their parents and do not break up families, then they have the right to be registered legally," he said. Metropolitan Kirill is head of the Department of External Church Relations (DECR) of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The original version of the bill, strongly supported by the Russian Orthodox Church, was approved in June by an overwhelming majority in both chambers of the Russian parliament. However, the bill was vetoed in July by President Boris Yeltsin after widespread protests from abroad and from minority religious organisations inside Russia who said that the bill would restrict their activities. Last week, President Yeltsin sent a revised version of the bill to the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.

Metropolitan Kirill said that the bill had now been revised in two main respects. The preamble to the bill now mentioned "Christianity" rather than simply Orthodoxy as being one of Russia's religious traditions, alongside Buddhism, Islam and Judaism, and the provision which required a 15-year probationary period before a new religious organisation could be registered with the state authorities would not be applied as rigorously to religious bodies already established in Russia, as to new groups.

Metropolitan Kirill was strongly critical of outside intervention when "Bill [Clinton] wrote to Boris [Yeltsin]" urging him not to sign the original legislation which Metropolitan Kirill described as being more "liberal" than laws governing religion in a number of other European countries. "The new law is so liberal it will prove to be ineffective," Metropolitan Kirill said, suggesting that it would "not be able to stop anything in Russia".

Pressed by journalists to explain why the Russian Orthodox Church was backing "ineffective" legislation, Metropolitan Kirill said that the proposed legislation set down criteria "to help people separate genuine religious activity from an activity which is dangerous for society".

He pointed to the "great numbers of missionaries arriving in Russia today" whose combined budgets amounted to US$150m a year. This amounted to "five times the budget of the Russian Orthodox Church", Metropolitan Kirill said.

"They can buy everything they want. They can buy journalists who misinform the world public opinion, buy TV time and buy property. This law attempts to protect society from this invasion from abroad."