KIROV PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE REQUESTS EXPROPRIATION OF PROPERTY FROM FINNISH RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION
by Anastasia Eremina
The prosecutor's office of Kirov oblast sent to a court a demand to find a contract of donation of immovable property invalid and to transfer to state ownership nonresidential premises of 175.4 square meters on Lenin Prospect in Kirovo-Chepetsk. Officially the owner of the property is a religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses (forbidden in Russia) that is registered in the territory of Finland.
As the office reports, it has been established that originally the immovable property belonged to the local organization of Jehovah's Witnesses of Kirovo-Chepetsk. Before the liquidation of the association in 2016, it donated this apartment to "Jehovah's Witnesses of Votkinsk." This organization, in turn, in February 2017 donated the property to the religious association of Jehovah's Witnesses registered in Finland.
However the prosecutor's office of Kirov oblast
reports that
since acquiring the property, the Finnish Jehovah's Witnesses have
not used the
premises and have accumulated more than 100,000 rubles of debts to
the
management company. Thus, in the conclusion of an agreement of
donation to a
foreign religious organization "there are seen indicators of a
sham
transaction, concluded for purposes of withdrawal of assets with
the intention
of inflicting damage on the Russian Federation through the
impossibility of converting
the property to state ownership." (tr. by PDS, posted 3 September
2019)
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