RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES THREATEN TO LIQUIDATE ADMINISTRATIVE CENTER OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
Press Service, Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, 7 April 2016
The office of the prosecutor general of the Russian federation issued an official warning to the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia for organizing religious activity—the same type of peaceful activity that Jehovah's Witnesses engage in throughout the world. The warning was issued on 2 March 2016; it was signed by the deputy prosecutor general of the Russian federation, Viktor Yakovlevich Grin. In the warning, the activity of the Witnesses is characterized as extremist and it gives the order to eliminate all "violations" within a two-month period. Otherwise, the center will be subject to liquidation.
The threat of liquidation of the Russian center of Jehovah's Witnesses is the culmination of a hostile campaign that was organized by the authorities. Since 2007 the Russian authorities have been improperly applying the law on combating extremism against the religious activity of Jehovah's Witnesses, as a result of which several local religious organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses have been liquidated and many of the Jehovah's Witnesses' publications have been prohibited. (tr. by PDS, posted 10 April 2016)
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