A written Russian official refusal to allow Jehovah’s Witness to meet for worship in Nizhny Novgorod Region, made in consultation with a local Orthodox bishop, provides rare evidence that state opposition to Jehovah’s Witnesses is fuelled by support for the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), Forum 18 News Service has found.

“As the administration, we conduct all our activity in close contact with the [Moscow Patriarchate] Diocese,” the official who drafted the refusal, Svetlana Zakharova, confirmed to Forum 18 on 10 July. “There’s not a single question affecting the interests of one side or the other that we don’t decide collegially.”

The refusal comes amid more government attempts to outlaw Jehovah’s Witness texts in different Russian regions, as well as prosecutions of people distributing Jehovah’s Witness works earlier ruled “extremist” (see below).

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