- Monday
- November 3rd, 2025
Unapproved sharing of beliefs were a quarter of 2015 prosecutions for public events in Russia. Forum 18 found 119 individuals and 3 religious organisations prosecuted, a sharp rise on 2014. Initial punishments were 80 fines,...
Russian prosecutors are trying to ban the Jehovah's Witness New World Bible as "extremist", Forum 18 notes. However, a Pervouralsk court refused to ban two Islamic texts citing the Koran as "extremist", in the first...
Unemployed Jehovah's Witness A. Bokov served six days in prison for possessing Jehovah's Witness literature the Russian authorities deem "extremist". Yevgeny Menshenin served five days in prison for sharing an Islamic video on a social...
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia—In an unprecedented move, Russian authorities have threatened to close the Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia.The Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation issued a formal warning letter dated March 2,...
On 15 February a court in Kazakhstan's capital Astana upheld the Prosecutor's suit to ban four further Christian books as "extremist", according to the decision seen by Forum 18. The books were among 47 items...
In Krymsk, police officers broke up a Jehovah’s Witnesses congress. Cossacks who arrived with them cut off the electricity to the stadium at which the event was being conducted, and then they pelted believers with...
It has been a week of ups and downs for religious freedom in Russia, with a Jewish school having become the target of an extremism investigation, and the beleaguered Jehovah's Witnesses having gained an improbable boost at the Justice Ministry's hand.Prosecutors in the city of Yekaterinburg have removed...
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia—In November 2014, Svetlana Nemchinova, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, found an envelope on the street containing 6,000 euros (over $6,800 U.S.). After a lengthy search for the owner, she was able to return...
A court in southern Russia has denounced a local organization of Jehovah's Witnesses as "extremist" and ordered it disbanded, the Interfax news agency reported Wednesday, in the latest in a long line of such rulings issued to the religious group in Russia.The group's building and surrounding land will...