RUSSIA: Jehovah’s Witnesses to be liquidated?

Russia appears to be moving to close the Jehovah's Witnesses' headquarters as "extremist". If this happens, all 406 registered local organisations and over 2,500 religious groups would be highly likely also to be liquidated, ending...

RUSSIA: Warnings and forced community liquidations increase

Russia's forced dissolution of local communities, literature bans, and "extremism" prosecutions increasingly restrict Jehovah's Witnesses' freedom of religion and belief. On 16 January, their national Administrative Centre in St Petersburg lost its latest legal challenge...

KAZAKHSTAN: Sharing beliefs “grave crime” requiring detention?

Kazakhstan's KNB secret police has arrested two Jehovah's Witnesses for discussing their faith with KNB informers. Teymur Akhmedov and Asaf Guliyev are in two months' pre-trial detention, although Akhmedov needs hospitalisation for cancer treatment. The...

Russia gets go ahead to liquidate Jehovah’s Witnesses Organisation

MOSCOW, Russia – The Appeal Court in Moscow, Russia has granted Russian Prosecutor the leave to liquidate activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses(JW) in Russia after branding them extremist group.The JW had appealed the decision and tried...

Russian Appellate Court Dismisses Witnesses’ Appeal Against Warning

On January 16, 2017, the Moscow City Court dismissed the Witnesses’ appeal that challenged the legality of the Prosecutor General’s warning issued against their national headquarters. The three-judge panel rejected all arguments filed by the Witnesses’ attorneys...

Russian court bans Jehovah’s Witnesses branch in Jewish Autonomous Region

MOSCOW, October 12 (RAPSI) – A court in the Jewish Autonomous Region has ruled to ban a branch of “The Jehovah’s Witnesses” in Birobidzhan because of distributing extremist literature by the organization, according to the court’s...

Experts Decry Russia’s Threat to Ban the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures

This is Part 2 of a three-part series based onexclusive interviews with noted scholars of religion, politics, and sociology, as well as experts in Soviet and post-Soviet studies.ST. PETERSBURG, Russia—Russian authorities are attempting to ban the New World...

RUSSIA: Many meetings raided and evidence planted

Raids on Jehovah's Witness premises now take place more than three times per month. These raids on doctrinally pacifist religious communities often involve many heavily armed and camouflaged officials, with the "discovery" of apparently planted...

Routine harassment of Jehovah’s Witnesses reported

Early in the morning of 20 September 2016, armed agents of law enforcement bodies in masks conducted a series of searches in houses of worship and private homes of Jehovah's Witnesses in Stavropol territory and...

KAZAKHSTAN: Sharing faith a state security issue?

Secret police officers hold "conversations" with and warn individuals suspected of talking to others of their faith, official reports from Almaty Region confirm. Talking about religion without state registration is illegal and punishable. Officials refuse...