I know a few LDS Missionaries from this area that served their missions in Russia with no problems
I know a few LDS Missionaries from this area that served their missions in Russia with no problems
my guess before
2009
2009 the Supreme Court of Russia upheld the ruling of the lower courts which pronounced 34 pieces of Jehovah's Witness literature extremist, including their magazine
The Watchtower, in the Russian language. Jehovah's Witnesses claim that this ruling affirms a misapplication of a federal law on anti-extremism. The ruling upheld the confiscation of property of Jehovah's Witnesses in Taganrog, and may set a precedent for similar cases in other areas of Russia, as well as placing literature of Jehovah's Witnesses on a list of literature unacceptable throughout Russia. The chairman of the presiding committee of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, Vasily Kalin, said: "I am very concerned that this decision will open a new era of opposition against Jehovah's Witnesses, whose right to meet in peace, to access religious literature and to share the Christian hope contained in the Gospels, is more and more limited."
[81][82][83] On December 1, 2015 a Rostov Regional Court convicted 16 Jehovah's Witnesses of practising extremism in Taganrog, with five given 5 1⁄2-year
suspended sentences and the remainder issued fines they were not required to pay.
[80]
On May 5, 2015, customs authorities in Russia seized a shipment of religious literature containing Ossetian-language Bibles published by Jehovah's Witnesses. Russian customs officials in the city of Vyborg held up a shipment of 2,013 Russian-language copies of Bibles on July 13, 2015. Customs authorities confiscated three of the Bibles, sent them to an "expert" to study the Bibles to determine whether they contained "extremist" language, and impounded the rest of the shipment.
[84]
On July 21, 2015, the Russian Federation Ministry of Justice added Jehovah's Witnesses' official website to the
Federal List of Extremist Materials thereby making it a criminal offense to promote the website from within the country and requiring internet providers throughout Russia to block access to the site.
[85][86]
On March 23, 2017, the
Russian News Agency TASS reported that Russia's Justice Ministry had suspended the activities of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia due to extremist activities.
[87] On April 4, 2017
UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression
David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedoms of Peaceful Assembly and Association
Maina Kiai, and UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief
Ahmed Shaheed condemned Russia's desire to ban Jehovah's Witnesses.
[88]
Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses - Wikipedia
