The article has been translated from Russian by Olessia Potdzerob)

According to the official statement of ISKCON Moscow, on June 7th, there was a ritual ceremony in honor of starting the construction of their new temple. However, they had to change the venue, as the land where their temple is going to be built, was occupied by several hundred protesters.

It was mentioned that it was not a foundation-stone laying ceremony, as mass media has described earlier, it was another special ceremony called “yajna” which does not necessarily have to be conducted on the land where the temple is to be built.

The ceremony was held in the Hare Krishna Temple in Moscow. It was visited by the Ambassador of India in Russia Anjai Malhotra, deputies of Moscow City Duma, the press-release says. Malhotra expressed his hope that the in the future the Vedic Cultural Center in Moscow will become “one of the landmarks of the capital”.

Initially, the ceremony was to be conducted in the place of future temple construction – in Novoshodnenskaya road in Moljaninovsky region North of Moscow (borders on Khimki). However, in Khimki was there was a protest against the construction of the Vedic Cultural Center. Several hundreds of people took part in the action, as “Interfax” reports.

The participants of the June 7th action displayed billboards saying “Christians are against it”, “Muslims are against it”, and “In 1612 we kicked out the Polish, in 1812 the French, and in 2012 we will kick out Krishnaites”.

One of the participants of the protest was the priest of Church St. George the Victorious in Khimki, Sergey Zavyalov. Не expressed his satisfaction with the cancellation of Hare Krishna’s event, and mentioned that earlier Moscovites had already defended their right to “not to share their native city with members of this destructive organization.”

The Society for Krishna Consciousness made attempts many times to build its center in Moscow. For example, in 2005 Krishnaites had been given the land in Leningradskoye road, but later the Moscow City Government annulled that decision.

Land in Novoshodnenskaya road was given to the Society for Krishna Conciseness by the city authorities.