E/CN.4/2005/61/Add.1 Page 51 organizations fully respect the rights of persons within its jurisdiction to full and free expression of their religious beliefs, as required by article 18”. Russian Federation Communications and replies received 197. On 16 March 2004, the Special Rapporteur sent a communication to the Government of the Russian Federation in relation to information according to which, on 1 December 2003, a district court in Kazan, the capital of Tartarstan, rejected an appeal by Baptist missionary Takhir Talipov for a residency permit. In its ruling, the court allegedly stated that the work of Mr. Talipov was “extremist” and liable to threaten the stability of the Republic. 198. It was further reported that the Kwan Lim (Kvanrim) Methodist Church in northern Moscow could lose its church building after the Moscow city justice department allowed persons who were not members of the congregation to transfer the ownership of the building without the Church’s knowledge. On 23 December 2003, Pastor Kim-Jun-Kuy, his family and other Church officials were forcibly evicted from the church. The Moscow justice department had reportedly accepted documents with a false stamp, which were subsequently used to create a “Kwan Lim” company, to transfer ownership of the church building to that company and then sell it on to another commercial firm at a fraction of its market price, all without the Church’s knowledge. 199. By letter dated 30 June 2004 the Government of the Russian Federation responded that Takhir Reshatovich Talipov, born in 1954, a resident of Riga, Latvia, was a teacher in the Eurasian missionary school, part of the religious organization “Faith Evangelical Christian Society”. He lived in Kazan, Tatarstan, with his wife and children at 53 Chistopolskaya Street, flat No. 16, without having officially registered. The Tatarstan Ministry of Internal Affairs Passport and Visa Service refused to authorize an extension of his stay in Tatarstan, in application of article 9, paragraphs 1, 4 and 8, of the federal law on the legal status of foreign citizens in the Russian Federation. T.R. Talipov appealed the decision to the Vakhitovsky district court in the city of Kazan, the Supreme Court of Tatarstan and, in January 2004, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. All his appeals were rejected. On 1 December 2003, T.R. Talipov left for Latvia. 200. Concerning the situation involving the “Kvanrim” Moscow United Methodist Church, on 23 May 2002, the Principal Administration of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation for the City of Moscow registered amendments to the statutes of the religious organization “Kvanrim” Moscow United Methodist Church, as well as changes in its leadership. 201. In 2002, the investigations department in the Moscow City Northern Administrative Area Internal Affairs Administration, part of the Principal Internal Affairs Administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, instituted criminal proceedings under article 159, part 3 (large-scale fraud), which relate to the property of the religious organization in question. On 16 October 2003,