(WASHINGTON POST):
For the past few months, Russia’s 175,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses have been on edge. After years, even decades, of persecution against the religious group, the Kremlin moved to get rid of the denomination for good. In February, Jehovah’s Witnesses were labeled “extremists” and locked out of their offices.
Then Kremlin officials launched a legal effort to ban the faith. That case quickly wound its way to the Supreme Court, where Justice Ministry attorney Svetlana Borisova said the Christian group posed a “threat” to “public order and public security.”
In court, Borisova brought in former followers to testify that top church officials took “total control” of their “intimate life, education and work.” Lawyers for the Jehovah’s Witnesses roundly denied those allegations. It didn’t matter. After six days of hearings, the Supreme Court sided with the government on Thursday.
They ruled that the group’s St. Petersburg headquarters and 395 churches could be seized and liquidated. All church activities, including worship and door-to-door evangelizing, were banned. Those who defy the ruling face a fine of several thousand dollars and six to 10 years in prison.
Human Rights Watch criticized the decision Thursday as a “terrible blow to freedom of religion and association in Russia.” And religious leaders promised to appeal. But they’re not hopeful. In the Soviet era, religion (Karl Marx’s “opiate of the masses”) was officially banned. Jehovah’s Witnesses were targeted as spies and enemies. One group was shipped off to Siberia.
The church’s 170,000 Russian members don’t vote, won’t serve in the military and refuse to attend national celebrations that glorify violence. That means they often avoid state-sponsored rallies celebrating, say, the annexation of Crimea. That’s a problem for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is naturally suspicious of groups with pro-Western sympathies (the sect is based in the United States). It’s also a way for him to show support to the Russian Orthodox Church.