ABSTRACT
As we have seen in the previous two chapters, a bundle of concepts — ‘totalitarian sect’, ‘spiritual security’, ‘canonical territory’, and especially ‘traditional religions’ — succeeded in undercutting Russia's constitutional commitment to religious pluralism. This loose terminology was not a government creation. But religious ‘extremism’ — a Kremlin-backed legal term adopted in response to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States — would ultimately perform the same function.
