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Report: Supreme Court to hear the case to ban the Jehovah's Witnesses religion
  April 5, 2017 Trying to complete ban Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia
  The Russian Supreme Court began hearings on the suit on the Elimination of Jehovah's Witnesses. It conducted a text report from the courtroom.
10:58 Big beautiful courtroom crowded. There are more than 200 people, including many journalists, representatives of public organizations and foreign embassies. The hearing began at 10:30.
A little less than 250 people were left on the street waiting for the results of the hearing. Cook Street in Moscow is filled with cars with transmitting television antennas. Occurring remove numerous chamber. Of police radios periodically hear the message "All is calm, without incident." In the hall representatives of embassies and international organizations in the headphones listening to the process of translation.
The case was heard Judge Yuri Ivanenko. The defendant, "the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia" are 6 persons, including Vasily Kalin of the Steering Committee, as well as lawyers. The representative of Ministry of Justice of Russia - Svetlana Borisova. Attached to the case with the defendant's objections to the applications in 35 volumes.
The court allowed the photographing and video recording only when the announcement of the final act. However, there is no record of obstacles. In the hall there are about 40 members of the media, they occupy the first rows of the audience.
11:00 The court refused to accept a counter claim for recognition of the Ministry of Justice acts of political repression. The judge described the passage of objections to the claim sufficient measure of protection for the defendant. 11:15 Representatives of Jehovah's Witnesses apply for admission to participation in the case of representatives of all 395 local religious organizations. Lawyer little wife: "If believers throughout Russia will be deprived of their rights, let them hear it here in court." Local religious organizations, contrary to the logic of the Ministry of Justice, are not the structural units of each other, but separate legal entities. 11:20 The lawyer Lew gives an example: "The logic of the Ministry of Justice, it turns out, it is necessary to impose a sentence: Shoot chieftain. And his whole platoon. " 11:25 The court rejected the enlistment of the 395 local organizations as a respondent. 11:30 Jehovah's Witnesses have asked the court to allow audio broadcasting the trial. The court refused. 11:35 Lawyers for the Jehovah's Witnesses are asking the court to adjourn the hearing pending the outcome of another case in another court. It is an appeal to the Court of Justice order the suspension of the activities of organizations . 11:42 The Ministry of Justice objected, because it believes that the authorities had every right to suspend the activities of organizations. 11:45 The court refused to postpone the hearing. 11:50 Omelchenko lawyer seeks the abandonment of the claim without consideration of the Ministry of Justice. The plaintiff is not complied with the pre-trial procedure for settling claims to the 395 communities of Jehovah's Witnesses. Before you make a claim for the liquidation of 395 local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, the authorities, by law, had to make an official warning each of them and to give time to correct them. 11:55 The second reason for the abandonment without consideration of this claim lies in the fact that the Russian courts have treated similar cases of liquidation and recognition of the "extremist" 2 out of 395 local Jehovah's Witnesses organizations (Karachay-Cherkessia and the Samara region). 12:05 The Court dismissed the petition on the abandonment without consideration. 12:10 Representatives of Jehovah's Witnesses are asked to postpone the hearing for one week due to the fact that the Ministry of Justice sent a statement of claim to the defendant in time. It came in the mail only to March 28, 2017. In addition, the Ministry of Justice to provide the defendant not all documents specified in the annexes to the statement of claim. 12:17 The Ministry of Justice does not object to the adjournment of the case. 12:19 The court refused to postpone the case. 12:20 Lawyer little wife seeks the suspension of the case due to the fact that in a number of Russian vessels submitted applications for consideration in force decisions of the courts on newly discovered evidence. We are talking about the revision in force of affairs on the Elimination of 8 local religious organizations (MPO) and the introduction of 88 publications of Jehovah's Witnesses in FSEM. The fact that all those court decisions were made without the involvement of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, since the Ministry of Justice insisted that the court decisions in relation to the LRO not affect the rights of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. In the present case the Ministry of Justice changed position and now all accusations against MPO, imputed to the Administrative Center. 12:30 The Ministry of Justice objected to the suspension, considering that, in cases involving MPO attended the same lawyers as in the case of liquidation of the MPO. 12:33 The court retired to the deliberation room. 13:50 The Court went out of the deliberation room. The suspension of the case was denied. 13:55 Little wife's lawyer said the petition to bring to participate in the case of experts, namely the religious scholars and linguists. Specialists may clarify whether are really extremist and dangerous texts that form the basis of the requirements of the Ministry of Justice to ban an entire religion in Russia. 14:00 Asked by the judge whether to propose lawyers to arrange a "revision" of court decisions, which was included in the literature FSEM lawyers explained that this information will be important to determine the proportionality of the Ministry of Justice requirements. 14:04 The representative of the Ministry of Justice objected to the admission of experts for the hearing. 14:05 The court refused to attract specialists to the hearing. 14:06 The lawyer asks little wife get to take part in the 9 foreign legal persons representing the religious communities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Europe and America. The reason is that the Ministry of Justice in its lawsuit asks the court to confiscate properties belonging to these organizations. 14:14 The court refused to attract foreign companies to participate in the case. 14:15 Omelchenko said the lawyer about bringing a motion to participate in the proceedings as interested parties of eight Russian citizens who were rehabilitated as victims of political repression. These people present in the room. Lawyers argue convincingly that these people rehabilitated from the turn in the case of satisfaction of the claim to the "extremists". 14:20 The Ministry of Justice said that the court decides on the liquidation of legal entities, it does not apply to individuals. In his reply the lawyer reminded the little wife that such considerations were guided by Soviet authorities, banning the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses, however, repression of painful blow it for the people, so that they have been rehabilitated. 14:25 Court denies the petition. 14:30 Lawyers apply for the interrogation of individual citizens, followers of the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses who can testify about what measures have been taken by Jehovah's Witnesses in order to prevent extremist activity. 14:35 The Ministry of Justice does not object. The court granted. 14:40 Lawyers say the request for interrogation as witnesses of persons recognized as victims of political repression. The Ministry of Justice objected. Court refuses. 14:43 Representative of Jehovah's Witnesses Nowak said petition for interrogation as witnesses of persons who witnessed falsification of evidence against those who believe in things that the Ministry of Justice uses in his lawsuit as "further evidence of the offense." 14:45 On the judge's objection that it comes to an effective decision, Novak says that in the present case can not be used prejudicial approach, because it is a different legal entity. The court must examine the evidence directly. Novakov tells the court about the circumstances and tossed perjuredly indications in a number of Russian cities. 15:00 The Ministry of Justice objected, arguing that the questioning, they believe authorities, aims to "to review the decision to enter into force." The court refused to examine witnesses evidence of fraud simple local Jehovah's Witnesses organizations.

Russia Moves to Ban Jehovah’s Witnesses as ‘Extremist’
By ANDREW HIGGINS APRIL 4, 2017
  Jehovah’s Witnesses gathered in a house in the village of Vorokhobino, north of Moscow, where they meet for services. CreditJames Hill for The New York Times VOROKHOBINO, Russia — A dedicated pacifist who has never even held a gun, Andrei Sivak discovered that his government considered him a dangerous extremist when he tried to change some money and the teller “suddenly looked up at me with a face full of fear.”
His name had popped up on the exchangalee bureau’s computer system, along with those of members of Al Qaeda, the Islamic State and other militant groups responsible for shocking acts of violence.
The only group the 43-year-old father of three has ever belonged to, however, is Jehovah’s Witnesses, a Christian denomination committed to the belief that the Bible must be taken literally, particularly its injunction “Thou shalt not kill.”
Yet, in a throwback to the days of the Soviet Union, when Jehovah’s Witnesses were hounded as spies and malcontents by the K.G.B., the denomination is at the center of an escalating campaign by the authorities to curtail religious groups that compete with the Russian Orthodox Church and that challenge President Vladimir V. Putin’s efforts to rally the country behind traditional and often militaristic patriotic values.
The Justice Ministry on Thursday put the headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia, an office complex near St. Petersburg, on a list of the bodies banned “in connection with the carrying out of extremist activities.”
Last month, the ministry asked the Supreme Court to outlaw the religious organization and stop its more than 170,000 Russian members from spreading “extremist” texts. The court is scheduled to hear — and is likely to rule on — the case on Wednesday.
Extremism, as defined by a law passed in 2002 but amended and expanded several times since, has become a catchall charge that can be deployed against just about anybody, as it has been against some of those involved in recent anti-corruption protests in Moscow and scores of other cities.
    The Jehovah’s Witnesses elders Vyacheslav Stepanov, 40, left, and Andrei Sivak, 43, are facing trial on charges of inciting division and hatred. CreditJames Hill for The New York Times Several students who took part in demonstrations in the Siberian city of Tomsk are now being investigated by a special anti-extremism unit while Leonid Volkov, the senior aide to the jailed protest leader Aleksei A. Navalny, said he had himself been detained last week under the extremism law.
In the case of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the putative extremism seems to derive mostly from the group’s absolute opposition to violence, a stand that infuriated Soviet and now Russian authorities whose legitimacy rests in large part on the celebration of martial triumphs, most notably over Nazi Germany in World War II but also over rebels in Syria.
Jehovah’s Witnesses, members of a denomination founded in the United States in the 19th century and active in Russia for more than 100 years, refuse military service, do not vote and view God as the only true leader. They shun the patriotic festivals promoted with gusto by the Kremlin, like the annual celebration of victory in 1945 and recent events to celebrate the annexation of Crimea in March 2014.
Mr. Sivak, who says he lost his job as a physical education teacher because of his role as a Jehovah’s Witnesses elder, said he had voted for Mr. Putin in 2000, three years before joining the denomination. He added that while he has not voted since, nor has he supported anti-Kremlin activities of the sort that usually attract the attention of Russia’s post-Soviet version of the K.G.B., the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B.
“I have absolutely no interest in politics,” he said during a recent Jehovah’s Witnesses Friday service in a wooden country house in Vorokhobino, a snow-covered village north of Moscow. Around 100 worshipers crammed into a long, chilly room under fluorescent lights to listen to readings from the Bible, sing and watch a video advising them to dress for worship as they would for a meeting with the president.
“From the Russian state’s perspective, Jehovah’s Witnesses are completely separate,” said Geraldine Fagan, the author of “Believing in Russia — Religious Policy After Communism.” She added, “They don’t get involved in politics, but this is itself seen as a suspicious political deviation.”
“The idea of independent and public religious activity that is completely outside the control of — and also indifferent to — the state sets all sorts of alarm bells ringing in the Orthodox Church and the security services,” she said.
That the worldwide headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses is in the United States and that its publications are mostly prepared there, Ms. Fagan added, “all adds up to a big conspiracy theory” for the increasingly assertive F.S.B.
  Photo   Jehovah’s Witnesses arriving at a Friday evening service in Vorokhobino. CreditJames Hill for The New York Times For Mr. Sivak, it has added up to a long legal nightmare. His troubles began, he said, when undercover security officers posed as worshipers and secretly filmed a service where he was helping to officiate in 2010.
Accused of “inciting hatred and disparaging the human dignity of citizens,” he was put on trial for extremism along with a second elder, Vyacheslav Stepanov, 40. The prosecutor’s case, heard by a municipal court in Sergiyev Posad, a center of the Russian Orthodox Church, produced no evidence of extremism and focused instead on the insufficient patriotism of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
“Their disregard for the state,” a report prepared for the prosecution said, “erodes any sense of civic affiliation and promotes the destruction of national and state security.”
In a ruling last year, the court found the two men not guilty and their ordeal seemed over — until Mr. Sivak tried to change money and was told that he had been placed on a list of “terrorists and extremists.”
He and Mr. Stepanov now face new charges of extremism and are to appear before a regional court this month. “There is a big wave of repression breaking,” Mr. Stepanov said.
In response to written questions, the Justice Ministry in Moscow said a yearlong review of documents at the Jehovah’s Witnesses “administrative center” near St. Petersburg had uncovered violations of a Russian law banning extremism. As a result, it added, the center should be “liquidated,” along with nearly 400 locally registered branches of the group and other structures.
For the denomination’s leaders inside Russia, the sharp escalation in a long campaign of harassment, previously driven mostly by local officials, drew horrifying flashbacks to the Soviet era.
Vasily Kalin, the chairman of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Russian arm, recalled that his whole family had been deported to Siberia when he was a child. “It is sad and reprehensible that my children and grandchildren should be facing a similar fate,” he said. “Never did I expect that we would again face the threat of religious persecution in modern Russia.”
    Mr. Stepanov led a Friday evening service. CreditJames Hill for The New York Times In Russia, as in many countries, the door-to-door proselytizing of Jehovah’s Witnesses often causes irritation, and their theological idiosyncrasies disturb many mainstream Christians. The group has also been widely criticized for saying that the Bible prohibits blood transfusions. But it has never promoted violent or even peaceful political resistance.
“I cannot imagine that anyone really thinks they are a threat,” said Alexander Verkhovsky, director of the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis, which monitors extremism in Russia. “But they are seen as a good target. They are pacifists, so they cannot be radicalized, no matter what you do to them. They can be used to send a message.”
That message, it would seem, is that everyone needs to get with the Putin program — or risk being branded as an extremist if they display indifference, never mind hostility, to the Kremlin’s drive to make Russia a great power again.
“A big reason they are being targeted is simply that they are an easy target,” Ms. Fagan said. “They don’t vote, so nobody is going to lose votes by attacking them.”
Attacking Jehovah’s Witnesses also sends a signal that even the mildest deviation from the norm, if proclaimed publicly and insistently, can be punished under the anti-extremism law, which was passed after Russia’s second war in Chechnya and the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.
Billed as a move by Russia to join a worldwide struggle against terrorism, the law prohibited “incitement of racial, national or religious strife, and social hatred associated with violence or calls for violence.”
But the reference to violence was later deleted, opening the way for the authorities to classify as extremist any group claiming to offer a unique, true path to religious or political salvation.
Even the Russian Orthodox Church has sometimes fallen afoul of the law: The slogan “Orthodoxy or Death!” — a rallying cry embraced by some hard-line believers — has been banned as an illegal extremist text.
    The Cathedral of the Assumption in Sergiyev Posad. Jehovah’s Witnesses say that the local authorities have avoided giving them permission to build a Kingdom Hall in the town, and that they have to use a large house in a village 12 miles away for services. CreditJames Hill for The New York Times To help protect the Orthodox Church and other established religions, Parliament passed a law in 2015 to exempt the Bible and the Quran, as well as Jewish and Buddhist scripture, from charges of extremism based on their claims to offer the only true faith.
The main impetus for the current crackdown, however, appears to come from the security services, not the Orthodox Church. Roman Lunkin, director of the Institute of Religion and Law, a Moscow research group, described it as “part of a broad policy of suppressing all nongovernmental organizations” that has gained particular force because of the highly centralized structure of Jehovah’s Witnesses under a worldwide leadership based in the United States.
“They are controlled from outside Russia and this is very suspicious for our secret services,” he said. “They don’t like having an organization that they do not and cannot control.”
Artyom Grigoryan, a former Jehovah’s Witness who used to work at the group’s Russian headquarters but who now follows the Orthodox Church, said the organization had “many positive elements,” like its ban on excessive drinking, smoking and other unhealthy habits.
All the same, he said it deserved to be treated with suspicion. “Look at it from the view of the state,” he said. “Here is an organization that is run from America, that gets financing from abroad, and whose members don’t serve in the army and don’t vote.”
Estranged from his parents, who are still members and view his departure as sinful, he said Jehovah’s Witnesses broke up families and “in the logic of the state, it presents a threat.”
He added, “I am not saying this is real or not, but it needs to be checked by objective experts.”
Mr. Sivak, now preparing for yet another trial, said he had always tried to follow the law and he respected the state, but could not put its interests above the commands of his faith.
“They say I am a terrorist,” he said, “but all I ever wanted to do was to get people to pay attention to the Bible.”
Correction: April 4, 2017  An earlier version of this article misstated Andrei Sivak’s age. He is 43, not 42. The error was repeated in a picture caption, which also misstated the age of Vyacheslav Stepanov. He is 40, not 39. And because of an editing error, the article also misidentified the person who said he was detained last week under Russia’s extremism law. It was Leonid Volkov, not Aleksei A. Navalny.
NICE THAT THE EDITOR PUT A PICTURE OF ELDERLY WITNESSES THAT RUSSIA IS CALLING DANGEROUS EXTREMIST.

AGREE AS JAMES SAID "CONSIDER IT JOY WHEN YOU MEET WITH VARIOUS TRIALS". OUR RUSSIAN BROTHERS KNOW THE END IS NEAR AND THEY HAVE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE AS WE DO IF WE HAVE J.O.Y. THAT IS PUT JEHOVAH FIRST, OTHERS SECOND AND YOURSELF LAST = JOY.

YES NEARLY ALL THE CHURCHES OTHER THAN THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX HAVE EXPERIENCED SOME KIND OF REPRESSION AND PERSECUTION. [EVEN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HAS HAD PROBLEMS  WHICH ONLY NUMBERS 600,000 IN RUSSIA COMPARED WITH 100 MILLION ROC].  BUT WHAT STANDS OUT IS THAT AT LEAST AT THIS TIME IT IS ONLY JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES THAT ARE BEING TARGETED FOR ELIMINATION BY BANNING THE ENTIRE RELIGION. THAT FACT ALONE STOOD OUT TO MY BIBLE STUDY AND IT IS THAT FACT THAT MADE HIM REALIZE THAT THE WITNESSES ARE STANDING OUT AS DIFFERENT, NOT BECAUSE OF PERSECUTION BUT OF GOING UNDER BAN. EVEN IF IT DOSEN'T HAPPEN THE FACT IS STILL THERE THAT IT WAS ONLY THE WITNESSES AS MANY SECULAR JOURNALIST HAVE RECENTLY NOTICED THAT HAVE BEEN SINGULARLY TARGETED FOR ELIMINATION BY BANNING. tHE CHANGES IN THE EXTREMIST LAWS IN 2006 AND 2015 SOME HAVE NOTED THE PARTICULAR DETAILS THAT MAINLY AFFECT PRIMARILY JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AS THEY ARE THE ONLY ONES WHO COVER THE ENTIRE SPECTRUM OF WHAT RUSSIA'S LAWS DEEM EXTREMIST - DOOR TO DOOR EVANGELISM, BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS, PRINTING AND MANY OTHERS.
ONE ITEM OF INTEREST REGARDING JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AS STANDING OUT AS DIFFERENT AND HATED BY OTHERS  IS IF YOU GO TO THE WEBSITE "RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE" {ONTARIO CONSULTANTS ON RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE] IT DISCUSSES THE BELIEFS OF THOUSANDS OF RELIGIONS. OUT OF THOSE THOUSANDS OF RELIGION ONLY ONE HAS A DISCLAIMER AT THE VERY BEGINNING OF THE SECTION ON THE WITNESSES. IT SAYS : 
"Note: Please don't send us abusive Emails that
attack the WTS. This section is about the WTS;
It is not an official Jehovah's Witness website.
We receive an enormous number of complaint Emails critical of our description of the Jehovah's Witnesses as a Christian denomination. Many Christians have a much more restrictive definition of the term "Christian" than we do. Before sending us a complaint Email, please read our essay on the diversity of definitions of the term "Christianity"  Also please note that we do not respond to abusive or obscene Emails which unfortunately form the majority of Emails on this topic."
NOT EVEN THE SECTION ABOUT MUSLIMS HAVE ANY DISCLAIMER OR ANY THING REMOTELY LIKE THE ABOVE. WHY WOULD ONLY JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES BE TARGETED FOR "ABUSIVE EMAILS" AS THIS WEBSITE NOTES?  I BELIEVE IT IS BECAUSE WE ARE "NO PART OF THE WORLD" AND THAT IS WHY THE WORLD [AND APOSTATES WHO WOULD SEND "ABUSIVE" EMAIL] HATE US AND WHY WE STAND OUT AS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT IN THIS ASPECT AS COMPARED TO THOUSANDS OF OTHER RELIGIONS BOTH LARGE AND SMALL !!!

ON APRIL, 3 2017 AN APPARENT TERRORIST ATTACK HAS OCCURED IN ST. PETERSBURG RUSSIA.  TIMING IS INTERESTING WITH WHAT IS HAPPENING ON WEDNESDAY. HOPEFULLY THEY WILL NOT PULL A "NERO" AND BLAME THE WRONG PEOPLE.
INITIAL REPORTS AT LEAST 10 DEAD OVER 50 INJURED AT A METRO STATION. RT NEWS ALREADY BLAMING IT ON RELIGIOUS TERRORIST. [ISLAMISTS].
SOME ON TWEETER ARE SPECULATING THAT IT IS PUTIN'S DOING TO ENACT MARTIAL LAW.

Jehovah's Witnesses counter sue Ministry of Justice
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ASK SUPREME COURT TO FIND JUSTICE MINISTRY'S ACTIONS TO BE POLITICAL REPRESSIONS
Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, 2 April 2017
 
An unprecedented lawsuit was filed on 30 March 2017 in the Supreme Court of Russia: to rule the actions of the Ministry of Justice against the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses to be political repressions. Comprehensive and reasonable, the aforesaid lawsuit is a counterclaim with respect to the lawsuit of the Ministry of Justice of 15 March 2017, in which the ministry asks for banning and recognizing as extremist the "Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia," and also 395 local organizations of this religion on the territory of Russia.
 
The actions of the Ministry of Justice possess the indicators of political repressions, from the point of view of Russian and international law. They violate articles 18, 9, and 6 of the Convention on Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Liberties. In Russia, the concept of repressions is defined by the law "On rehabilitation of victims of political repressions." Repressions include politically motivated action of organs of government for restriction of the rights and liberties of citizens who are considered to be dangerous for the state, including on the basis of religious identity.
 
The lawsuit of the Ministry of Justice is aimed at associations of citizens selected exclusively on the basis of their confessing the faith of the Jehovah's Witnesses.
 
Analysis of the actions of the Ministry of Justice with respect to Jehovah's Witnesses gives evidence of arbitrariness and discrimination. For example, laboratories and centers of forensic expert analysis that are subordinate to the Ministry of Justice have come to diametrically opposite conclusions about the presence or absence of indicators of "extremism" in the very same publications of Jehovah's Witnesses. Such a contradiction in and of itself is evidence of the unacceptable weakness of the methods. But, instead of striving to establish the truth, ensuring the unity and consistency of proper expert conclusions, the Ministry of Justice has used in courts only those conclusions that have led to finding books of Jehovah's Witnesses to be "extremist," and consequently to finding their organizations to be "extremist."
 
In the lawsuit numerous instances are cited testifying to the fact that prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses is politically motivated.
 
Believers of the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses have already been recognized as victims of political repressions, by the order of the Russian president "On measures for rehabilitation of clergy and believers who have been victims of unjustified repressions." Russian legislation has condemned the years-long terror and massive persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses as incompatible with the ideals of right and justice, has expressed deep sympathy for the victims of unjustified repressions and to the relatives and neighbors, and has declared the unwavering attempt to achieve real guarantees of maintaining legality and human rights.
 
The Russian Supreme Court will begin consideration of the lawsuit on 5 April 2017. (tr. by PDS, posted 3 April 2017)

YES NEARLY ALL THE CHURCHES OTHER THAN THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX HAVE EXPERIENCED SOME KIND OF REPRESSION AND PERSECUTION. [EVEN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HAS HAD PROBLEMS  WHICH ONLY NUMBERS 600,000 IN RUSSIA COMPARED WITH 100 MILLION ROC].  BUT WHAT STANDS OUT IS THAT AT LEAST AT THIS TIME IT IS ONLY JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES THAT ARE BEING TARGETED FOR ELIMINATION BY BANNING THE ENTIRE RELIGION. THAT FACT ALONE STOOD OUT TO MY BIBLE STUDY AND IT IS THAT FACT THAT MADE HIM REALIZE THAT THE WITNESSES ARE STANDING OUT AS DIFFERENT, NOT BECAUSE OF PERSECUTION BUT OF GOING UNDER BAN. EVEN IF IT DOSEN'T HAPPEN THE FACT IS STILL THERE THAT IT WAS ONLY THE WITNESSES AS MANY SECULAR JOURNALIST HAVE RECENTLY NOTICED THAT HAVE BEEN SINGULARLY TARGETED FOR ELIMINATION BY BANNING. tHE CHANGES IN THE EXTREMIST LAWS IN 2006 AND 2015 SOME HAVE NOTED THE PARTICULAR DETAILS THAT MAINLY AFFECT PRIMARILY JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AS THEY ARE THE ONLY ONES WHO COVER THE ENTIRE SPECTRUM OF WHAT RUSSIA'S LAWS DEEM EXTREMIST - DOOR TO DOOR EVANGELISM, BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS, PRINTING AND MANY OTHERS.
ONE ITEM OF INTEREST REGARDING JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AS STANDING OUT AS DIFFERENT AND HATED BY OTHERS  IS IF YOU GO TO THE WEBSITE "RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE" {ONTARIO CONSULTANTS ON RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE] IT DISCUSSES THE BELIEFS OF THOUSANDS OF RELIGIONS. OUT OF THOSE THOUSANDS OF RELIGION ONLY ONE HAS A DISCLAIMER AT THE VERY BEGINNING OF THE SECTION ON THE WITNESSES. IT SAYS : 
"Note: Please don't send us abusive Emails that
attack the WTS. This section is about the WTS;
It is not an official Jehovah's Witness website.
We receive an enormous number of complaint Emails critical of our description of the Jehovah's Witnesses as a Christian denomination. Many Christians have a much more restrictive definition of the term "Christian" than we do. Before sending us a complaint Email, please read our essay on the diversity of definitions of the term "Christianity"  Also please note that we do not respond to abusive or obscene Emails which unfortunately form the majority of Emails on this topic."
NOT EVEN THE SECTION ABOUT MUSLIMS HAVE ANY DISCLAIMER OR ANY THING REMOTELY LIKE THE ABOVE. WHY WOULD ONLY JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES BE TARGETED FOR "ABUSIVE EMAILS" AS THIS WEBSITE NOTES?  I BELIEVE IT IS BECAUSE WE ARE "NO PART OF THE WORLD" AND THAT IS WHY THE WORLD [AND APOSTATES WHO WOULD SEND "ABUSIVE" EMAIL] HATE US AND WHY WE STAND OUT AS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT IN THIS ASPECT AS COMPARED TO THOUSANDS OF OTHER RELIGIONS BOTH LARGE AND SMALL !!!

AGREE AS JAMES SAID "CONSIDER IT JOY WHEN YOU MEET WITH VARIOUS TRIALS". OUR RUSSIAN BROTHERS KNOW THE END IS NEAR AND THEY HAVE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE AS WE DO IF WE HAVE J.O.Y. THAT IS PUT JEHOVAH FIRST, OTHERS SECOND AND YOURSELF LAST = JOY.

YES NEARLY ALL THE CHURCHES OTHER THAN THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX HAVE EXPERIENCED SOME KIND OF REPRESSION AND PERSECUTION. [EVEN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HAS HAD PROBLEMS  WHICH ONLY NUMBERS 600,000 IN RUSSIA COMPARED WITH 100 MILLION ROC].  BUT WHAT STANDS OUT IS THAT AT LEAST AT THIS TIME IT IS ONLY JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES THAT ARE BEING TARGETED FOR ELIMINATION BY BANNING THE ENTIRE RELIGION. THAT FACT ALONE STOOD OUT TO MY BIBLE STUDY AND IT IS THAT FACT THAT MADE HIM REALIZE THAT THE WITNESSES ARE STANDING OUT AS DIFFERENT, NOT BECAUSE OF PERSECUTION BUT OF GOING UNDER BAN. EVEN IF IT DOSEN'T HAPPEN THE FACT IS STILL THERE THAT IT WAS ONLY THE WITNESSES AS MANY SECULAR JOURNALIST HAVE RECENTLY NOTICED THAT HAVE BEEN SINGULARLY TARGETED FOR ELIMINATION BY BANNING. tHE CHANGES IN THE EXTREMIST LAWS IN 2006 AND 2015 SOME HAVE NOTED THE PARTICULAR DETAILS THAT MAINLY AFFECT PRIMARILY JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AS THEY ARE THE ONLY ONES WHO COVER THE ENTIRE SPECTRUM OF WHAT RUSSIA'S LAWS DEEM EXTREMIST - DOOR TO DOOR EVANGELISM, BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS, PRINTING AND MANY OTHERS.
ONE ITEM OF INTEREST REGARDING JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AS STANDING OUT AS DIFFERENT AND HATED BY OTHERS  IS IF YOU GO TO THE WEBSITE "RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE" {ONTARIO CONSULTANTS ON RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE] IT DISCUSSES THE BELIEFS OF THOUSANDS OF RELIGIONS. OUT OF THOSE THOUSANDS OF RELIGION ONLY ONE HAS A DISCLAIMER AT THE VERY BEGINNING OF THE SECTION ON THE WITNESSES. IT SAYS : 
"Note: Please don't send us abusive Emails that
attack the WTS. This section is about the WTS;
It is not an official Jehovah's Witness website.
We receive an enormous number of complaint Emails critical of our description of the Jehovah's Witnesses as a Christian denomination. Many Christians have a much more restrictive definition of the term "Christian" than we do. Before sending us a complaint Email, please read our essay on the diversity of definitions of the term "Christianity"  Also please note that we do not respond to abusive or obscene Emails which unfortunately form the majority of Emails on this topic."
NOT EVEN THE SECTION ABOUT MUSLIMS HAVE ANY DISCLAIMER OR ANY THING REMOTELY LIKE THE ABOVE. WHY WOULD ONLY JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES BE TARGETED FOR "ABUSIVE EMAILS" AS THIS WEBSITE NOTES?  I BELIEVE IT IS BECAUSE WE ARE "NO PART OF THE WORLD" AND THAT IS WHY THE WORLD [AND APOSTATES WHO WOULD SEND "ABUSIVE" EMAIL] HATE US AND WHY WE STAND OUT AS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT IN THIS ASPECT AS COMPARED TO THOUSANDS OF OTHER RELIGIONS BOTH LARGE AND SMALL !!!

AGREE AS JAMES SAID "CONSIDER IT JOY WHEN YOU MEET WITH VARIOUS TRIALS". OUR RUSSIAN BROTHERS KNOW THE END IS NEAR AND THEY HAVE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE AS WE DO IF WE HAVE J.O.Y. THAT IS PUT JEHOVAH FIRST, OTHERS SECOND AND YOURSELF LAST = JOY.

The following op-ed appeared in The Moscow Times on July 26, 2015
How will Europe's human rights court respond to a government that treats a pacifist religious group as a dangerous extremist cell? The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will answer that question this summer when it rules on whether Russia's prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses under its extremism law criminalizes freedom of religion or belief.
A ruling against the Kremlin could be a landmark decision for Russia, affecting not only Jehovah's Witnesses. From Muslims to dissenting members of the Moscow Patriarchate Russian Orthodox Church (MPROC), other Russians are also caught in the wide net cast by this overly broad law.
Under the extremism law, religious material is banned throughout Russia once a higher court upholds a lower court ruling that it is "extremist." Convicted individuals face up to four years in prison. As of this June, Russia's list of banned materials reached 2,859 items, having started in 2007 with 15 items.
The ECHR is reviewing 22 cases of Russian court bans of 72 Jehovah's Witness texts, including a children's book called "My Book of Bible Stories."
Russia enacted its extremism law in 2002, just months after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. Two of the law's provisions defined religious extremism as promoting the "exclusivity, superiority, or lack of equal worth of an individual" and "incitement of religious discord" in connection with acts or threats of violence.
How did these provisions allow Russia to target Jehovah's Witnesses or other peaceful religious minorities?
MY THOUGHT : 10  “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: ‘In that day thoughts will come into your heart, and you will devise an evil plan. 11  You will say: “I will invade the land of unprotected settlements.*+ I will come against those living in security, without disturbance, all of them living in settlements unprotected by walls, bars, or gates.” 12  It will be to take much spoil and plunder, to attack the devastated places that are now inhabited+and a people regathered from the nations,+ who are accumulating wealth and property,+ those who are living in the center of the earth. EZEKIEL 38.

Here is a new book from 2014 by Baran called "Dissent on the Margins How Soviet Jehovah's Witnesses Defied Communism and Lived to Preach About It". This is an excellent 382 page book about "Jehovah's Witnesses and how they survived decades of brutal persecution, and emerged as one of the region's fastest growing religions after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. The Soviet state considered Witnesses to be the most reactionary of all underground religious movements, and used extraordinary measures to try and eliminate this threat. Yet the Witnesses survived, while the Soviet system did not. After 1991, they faced continuing challenges to their right to practice their faith in post Soviet states..." [from book jacket].     Currently as of 2015 the Russian Federation just like its predecessor the Soviet state has been repressing the Jehovah's Witnesses in particular. So much so that they even banned the official website that they use as noted below. Thinking they are extremist because of their Christian neutrality and the fact that they are "no part of the world" as the Bible says Christians should be. And as Jesus said the "World would hate them" because of their stand as true Christians. [John 15:17-19 ;17:16; 18:36].       Seven months after the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation declared  jw. org to be extremist, Russian authorities banned the official website of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The ban became effective on July 21, 2015, when the Russian Federation Ministry of Justice added jw. org to the Federal List of Extremist Materials. Internet providers throughout Russia have blocked access to the website, and it is now a criminal offense to promote it from within the country. Russia is the only country in the world to ban jw. org. {FROM LISA.JOEYWIT ON EBAY}.

Here is a book about Christians in Russia during the Cold War era [printed 1964]. Called "The Faith of the Russian Evangelicals" by Pollock. There are several areas that talk about "Jehovah's Witnesses" in Russia. Here is one quote :"Jehovah's Witnesses have spread like wildfire in Russia...have not endeared them to the historic Churches throughout the world, enrage the Soviet authorities. Jehovah's Witnesses are opposed to all governments, most of whom treat them as somewhat a joke. The Soviet Government treat them as a deadly serious threat..." [page 150].    Interestingly although the Soviet Union was dissolved over 25 years ago, today the Russian Federation Government still considers them a "Deadly serious threat" since they have branded them "extremist" and have even banned their website noted below. The only country so far to have done so!      UPDATE : On April, 5 2017 the Supreme Court in Russia may BAN Jehovah's Witnesses. Out of over 2,000 religions in Russia WHY are they picking only on this small religion of peaceful people and proclaim they are the same as terrorists by banning them?  {FROM EBAY LISA.JOEYWIT}

The following op-ed appeared in The Moscow Times on July 26, 2015
How will Europe's human rights court respond to a government that treats a pacifist religious group as a dangerous extremist cell? The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will answer that question this summer when it rules on whether Russia's prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses under its extremism law criminalizes freedom of religion or belief.
A ruling against the Kremlin could be a landmark decision for Russia, affecting not only Jehovah's Witnesses. From Muslims to dissenting members of the Moscow Patriarchate Russian Orthodox Church (MPROC), other Russians are also caught in the wide net cast by this overly broad law.
Under the extremism law, religious material is banned throughout Russia once a higher court upholds a lower court ruling that it is "extremist." Convicted individuals face up to four years in prison. As of this June, Russia's list of banned materials reached 2,859 items, having started in 2007 with 15 items.
The ECHR is reviewing 22 cases of Russian court bans of 72 Jehovah's Witness texts, including a children's book called "My Book of Bible Stories."
Russia enacted its extremism law in 2002, just months after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. Two of the law's provisions defined religious extremism as promoting the "exclusivity, superiority, or lack of equal worth of an individual" and "incitement of religious discord" in connection with acts or threats of violence.
How did these provisions allow Russia to target Jehovah's Witnesses or other peaceful religious minorities?
MY THOUGHT : 10  “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: ‘In that day thoughts will come into your heart, and you will devise an evil plan. 11  You will say: “I will invade the land of unprotected settlements.*+ I will come against those living in security, without disturbance, all of them living in settlements unprotected by walls, bars, or gates.” 12  It will be to take much spoil and plunder, to attack the devastated places that are now inhabited+and a people regathered from the nations,+ who are accumulating wealth and property,+ those who are living in the center of the earth. EZEKIEL 38.

Such a massive ban of an organization with such a great number of regional representations and members has not been in Russia," Gefter said in commenting for a Kavkazskii Uzel correspondent.
From Russia Religion News Current News Items

There has never been such a widespread ban in Russia
http://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/299858/

There has never been such a widespread ban in Russia
http://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/299858/

Yes Tom that is true and it is also in the public press here :
Enormous attention to Jehovah's Witnesses case
PETITION FILED FOR SPACIOUS COURTROOM AND VIDEOTAPING IN HEARINGS IN SUPREME COURT OF RUSSIA
Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, 23 March 2017
 
On 21 March 2017 the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia sent to the Supreme Court of Russia a petition that for the hearing on the lawsuit of the Russian Ministry of Justice a courtroom for the sessions capable of accommodating 200 and more persons be provided and also that there be provided the possibility for persons present in the courtroom to make video recordings of the judicial session.
 
"In and of itself the submission of such an unprecedented petition to the court is for Russia an extraordinary event, attention to which is riveted not only in all of Russia but throughout the world also, since Jehovah's Witnesses are not only a well known and recognized religion in Russia but also a famous Christian religion worldwide, that is professed in an overwhelming majority of countries and territories of the world. After the posting of the aforementioned information on the website of the Supreme Court of the RF, the Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia received numerous requests for clarification of the date and time of the hearing from representatives of local religious organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses, state bodies, news media, rights advocacy organizations, representatives of embassies of various countries, believers, and other persons," one of the petitions says. "Orally they express their desire to be immediately present for the consideration of this case."
 
The hearings will begin on 5 April 2017 at 10:00 in the Supreme Court of Russia, located at the address: Moscow, ul. Povarskaia, 13. The closest metro stations are Barrikadnaia and Arbatskaia. (tr. by PDS, posted 25 March 2017)

Russia Religion News Current News Items

ONE OF MY BIBLE STUDIES YESTERDAY CAME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ARE THE TRUE RELIGION BECAUSE OF WHAT IS HAPPENING IN RUSSIA. HE NOTICED THAT ONLY THE WITNESSES AND NO OTHER RELIGION IS TARGETED TO BE BANNED ON APRIL 5. HE SAID "THERE ARE OVER 2,000 RELIGIONS IN RUSSIA AND THEY ARE PICKING ON A SMALL PEACEFUL RELIGION THAT CANNOT FIGHT BACK AS MOST WOULD DO. WHY ONLY THE WITNESSES?" HE SAID IT IS NOW OBVIOUS THAT THEY HAVE THE TRUTH. MANY RELIGIONS ARE BEING RESTRICTED IN RUSSIA BUT ONLY ONE HAS BEEN SUBMITTED TO THE SUPREME COURT TO BE ABOLISHED !!!

AMAZING - THE MOST READ NEWS ITEM IN RUSSIA AT THE TASS RUSSIAN NEWS AGENCY IS ON JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES !!!
Most read Now Today This week 1 Russia designates myriad of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ materials as extremist 2 Press review: Russia cools down tensions with NATO and Turkey exits Syria 3 The might of Russia's advanced nuclear submarine 4 Moscow puzzled by Tillerson's statements about ‘Russian aggression’ in Ukraine 5 ‘Secret spy room’ uncovered in Moscow during renovation work 6 Ukraine’s top diplomat says there will be no concessions for Russian singer at Eurovision 7 Free Syrian Army and Turkey may be planning new operation in Syria

More:
http://tass.com/russia/759625
NOT ONLY ARE THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES THE MOST READ ITEM FOR "TODAY" BUT IF YOU CLICK ON THE "WEEK"  IT IS THE MOST READ ITEM FOR THE ENTIRE WEEK ON THE RUSSIAN NEWS  - TASS
Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia suspended over extremism

More:
http://tass.com/society/937146

THIS IS FROM RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS
Local Jehovah's Witnesses congregations seek involvement in court proceedings
22 CRIMEAN JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ORGANIZATIONS SUBMIT DECLARATION TO RUSSIAN SUPREME COURT
Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, 30 March 2017
 
The Ministry of Justice is demanding to liquidate, find extremist, ban, and confiscate the buildings of all 396 registered organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, including 22 organizations in Crimea. For the 8,000 believers on the peninsula, who have professed their religion freely for decades, this news was completely unexpected.
 
These 22 local religious organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in the republic of Crimea were registered on the initiative of Russian authorities in May 2015. Since then they have not received from the state any charges, fines, or warnings. Therefore they are extremely perplexed with regard to the initiative of the Ministry of Justice to ban them and to recognize them as extremist.
 
Most disturbing is that the Ministry of Justice considered it possible to declare all these organizations outside the law—behind their back and without involving them in the case. The plaintiff's declaration—with much delay—was sent only to the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.
 
For this reason, 22 Crimean local religious organizations filed in the Supreme Court a petition for involving them in the case in the capacity of an administrative co-defendant. They recall that in the Russian federation the right to judicial protection is among the basic inalienable rights. (tr. by PDS, posted 30 March 2017)

Russia Religion News Current News Items
A RUSSIAN ORTHODOX BISHOP HAS STATED THAT THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT BAN THE WITNESSES BECAUSE THAT WOULD GIVE MORE ATTENTION TO THEM AND MORE PEOPLE WILL BECOME JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES.
EVERYONE KEEP UP THE LETTER WRITING AND KEEP GIVING ATTENTION. DO NOT BE SILENT.. PRAISE JAH. http://www2.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/170327b.html

Brothers and sisters, this is just a warm up for all of us.  Do not always believe in what you hear. (Read the article:http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2013923)
 
Follow the proper channel and remember the moral lesson of 1Ki 13:11-24.  If there's anything that the GB needs us to know, there will be a letter to the elders.
 
By doing so, we don't spread any rumours because if we do, we are actually going against the spirit.
 
Note:  we always see many asking if there were any letters or bethel 'morning worship' announcements, stating not to mention in social media.

Jehovah's Witnesses case viewed from far south of Russia
RIGHTS DEFENDERS CALL PERSECUTION OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES IN RUSSIA UNPRECEDENTED
Kavkazskii Uzel, 27 March 2017
 
A possible ban on the activity of the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia will lead to widespread violations of rights and criminal prosecutions of citizens, according to experts questioned by Kavkazskii Uzel. Congregations in the south of the country number about 48 thousand actively practicing believers, a representative of the Russian administrative center of Jehovah's Witnesses reported.
 
As Kavkazskii Uzel reported, the activity of the religious organization "Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia" was suspended because of "violations of charter goals and purposes and also existing legislation of the Russian federation, including the federal law 'On combating extremist activity,'" the Ministry of Justice reported on 23 March. Representatives of the administrative center reported about a coordinated campaign whose goal is "recognizing the activity of Jehovah's Witnesses to be extremist and prohibiting it throughout the country."
 
"They take every instance when we say that our faith is correct and they get extremism out of this. But after all every faith says this," a representative of the head of the Russian office, Yaroslav Sivulsky, commented for Kavkazskii Uzel on the precedents of including publications of the religious organization in the list of extremist materials. The United Nations Committee for Human Rights and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe expressed worry about the application of the law on extremism to Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.
 
48,000 believers in South Russia are in the risk zone
 
In all, in Russia there are 396 registered religious organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses and 2277 religious groups of this confession, numbering 175 thousand believers. In regions of the Southern Federal District and North Caucasus Federal District there reside about 48 thousand "actively practicing adherents of our religion, without counting sympathizers and relatives who are wavering," Ivan Belenko, the press secretary of the headquarters of Russian Jehovah's Witnesses, told a Kavkazskii Uzel correspondent.
 
In particular, in Dagestan live 430 believers; in Kabardino-Balkaria, 1,600; in Karachaevo-Chekesia, 350; in Stavropol territory, 8,500; in North Ossetia, 4,300; in Krasnodar territory, 17,500; in Rostov province, 6,500; in Astrakhan province, 900; in Kalmykia, 80; in Volgograd province, 6,000; in Adygei, 1,500 Jehovah's Witnesses. There are no precise data for Chechnya and Ingushetia, Belenko added.
 
Local religious organizations in the Southern Federal District and North Caucasus Federal District are regularly fined for use of literature, published by Jehovah's Witnesses and subsequently included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials. In addition, eight organizations have been liquidated, including in Taganrog (Rostov province), Abinsk (Krasnodar territory), Chekessk (Karachaevo-Cherkesia), and Elista (Kalmykia).
 
Ivan Belenko connected the liquidation of eight religious organizations with the lawsuit against the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses.
 
"On 2 March 2016, the headquarters received a warning from the office of the prosecutor general regarding the impermissibility of extremist activity. The warning pointed out the closing of eight local organizations and the connection between them and the administrative center. In the intervening year, fines have often been levied on local organizations," Belenko said, specifying that the warning spoke about the possibility of filing a lawsuit for liquidation in the event of a repeat of violations of antiextremism legislation.
 
"In these 12 months, which ended on 2 March 2017, we have had a multitude of plants of literature that has been ruled extremist," Ivan Belenko declared.
 
"In 2016 alone occurred no fewer that 46 such plants, several of which were recorded by surveillance cameras. Believers sent corresponding declarations to law enforcement agencies. . . . One planted brochure is often sufficient for warning a local religious organization," a press release of 15 February by the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia said. In particular, surveillance cameras recorded an incident occurring on 20 September 2016 in the village of Nezlobnoe of Stavropol territory. The video, posted on the website of the Russian Jehovah's Witnesses, contains footage of how people in black masks broke into a house of worship and took literature out from under their clothing and placed in on a table nearby.
 
Cases will not be opened against 175 thousand persons, but the flywheel will be spinning
 
The attempt to restrict the activity of a religious organization was called unprecedented in scale by the director of the Sova Center for News and Analysis, Alexander Verkhovsky.
 
"The only thing of which Jehovah's Witnesses are accused is that they maintain that their religion is the best and all the others have gone astray. On this basis their literature is banned and now it has reached to a general prohibition of the organization," Verkhovsky told a Kavkazskii Uzel correspondent.
 
Verkhovsky noted that the suspension of activity is an interim measure for the period of consideration of the ministry's lawsuit in the Supreme Court of Russia.
 
"If the court denies the lawsuit of the Ministry of Justice, then the suspension will be over, but if it is approved, the suspension will turn into liquidation. Evidently there will be an appeal, but on the whole in this case everything will happen quite quickly," the expert thinks.
 
Suspension of activity effectively means blocking the functioning of the religious organization, and in the long term its adherents are threatened with criminal prosecution, Verkhovsky supposes.
 
"The suspension extends to the whole structure of Russian Jehovah's Witnesses. The decision contains a list of organizations whose activity must be suspended. This means that for any activity, including religious activity like prayer meetings, an administrative fine is threatened. If the Supreme Court prohibits the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, and its decision takes effect, then an attempt to meet will entail a criminal penalty on the basis of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of RF, for continuation of the activity of an extremist organization. Jehovah's Witnesses have already had such cases on the basis of bans of local organizations. It is clear that criminal cases will not be opened against 175 thousand persons, but they will be opened against somebody and gradually the flywheel will only go spinning," Verkhovsky said.
 
The liquidation of the Taganrog congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses in 2009 led to the judicial prosecution of its members. According to the investigation, after the ban of the group of believers, it continued to conduct worship services and study of literature that had been ruled extremist. The defendants did not acknowledge their guilt, thinking that they were being persecuted for religious convictions. On 30 November 2015, four of them were sentenced to suspended terms and another 12 to fines on the basis of the charge of extremism. In March 2016 the Rostov provincial court considered that this verdict was justified.
 
A ban of the activity of the organization may lead to the confiscation of all property belonging to it, Verkhovsky noted. "The ban has been done to a great extent so that they were not able to transfer this property to other legal entities," Verkhovsky said.
 
The justice ministry's lawsuit fits into the logic of antiextremist legislation, the expert thinks.
 
"It is said that so much literature and so many organizations have been banned, but the activity has continued, so it is time to prohibit on the whole. Technically for representatives of the organization it will be difficult to defend their position in the Supreme Court. In order to stop the process it will be necessary to reconsider the bans of publications themselves. For this the prosecutor general's office must display good will; but it is this agency that beginning in 2009 was the chief engine of pressure. Or there must be intervention on the level of the president," Verkhovsky concluded.
 
There has never been such a widespread ban in Russia
 
The suspension of the activity of the Administrative Center of Russian Jehovah's Witnesses is blocking the charter activity of the religious organization, considers the chairman of the committee Civic Cooperation, Svetlana Gannushkina.
 
"After the ban of the activity they do not have the right either to assemble or to conduct mass events or to register or to open an account, that is, to conduct a normal form of life  typical of a public structure," the rights advocate said in commentary for Kavkazskii Uzel.
 
She thinks that the persecution of the Jehovah's Witnesses is explained by the relationships of the state with the official church.
 
"Persecution of the Witnesses has been going on for a long time, although there are no bases for it. This is not an extremist sect but serious Christians who are in no way worse than our Orthodox believers. Everything is explained by the fact that they constitute competition for our official church. Unfortunately, the leadership of the church conducts itself in this regard extremely tactlessly and not politically correct," Svetlana Gannushkina concluded.
 
The threat of prosecution of believing adherents with the help of antiextremism legislation is not ruled out also by the director of the Institute of Human Rights, Valentin Gefter.
 
"Prosecution will not begin right away, but its likelihood cannot be ruled out. One gets the impression that the sum of decisions of regional courts (liquidating local religious organizations—KU note) and the Ministry of Justice will lead to a [complete] cessation of the activity of the religious organization. Such a massive ban of an organization with such a great number of regional representations and members has not been in Russia," Gefter said in commenting for a Kavkazskii Uzel correspondent.
 
At the same time, formally the decision of the Ministry of Justice for suspension of activity of the headquarters of Russian Jehovah's Witnesses does not affect the personal interests of believers, attorney Anton Bogdanov explained.
 
"The order of the Ministry of Justice was issued only with respect to the legal entity 'Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia' and does not apply to or affect the personal confessional activity of individual citizens," a Kavkazskii Uzel correspondent was told by the lawyer, who has had occasion to represent the interests of adherents of religious groups.
 
"The campaign of persecution of Witnesses for statements typical of all religious texts represents a flagrant violation of the constitutional principle of freedom of conscience and the equality of religious associations before the law," the official website of Russian Jehovah's Witnesses quotes an expert of the Institute of Human Rights, Lev Levinson.
 
In the "Information" section in Kavkazskii Uzel is published the Russia-wide list of materials found by a court to be extremist. In accordance with article 13 of the federal law "On combating extremist activity," this list "is subject to periodic publication in news media." (tr. by PDS, posted 1 April 2017)

ONE OF MY BIBLE STUDIES YESTERDAY CAME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ARE THE TRUE RELIGION BECAUSE OF WHAT IS HAPPENING IN RUSSIA. HE NOTICED THAT ONLY THE WITNESSES AND NO OTHER RELIGION IS TARGETED TO BE BANNED ON APRIL 5. HE SAID "THERE ARE OVER 2,000 RELIGIONS IN RUSSIA AND THEY ARE PICKING ON A SMALL PEACEFUL RELIGION THAT CANNOT FIGHT BACK AS MOST WOULD DO. WHY ONLY THE WITNESSES?" HE SAID IT IS NOW OBVIOUS THAT THEY HAVE THE TRUTH. MANY RELIGIONS ARE BEING RESTRICTED IN RUSSIA BUT ONLY ONE HAS BEEN SUBMITTED TO THE SUPREME COURT TO BE ABOLISHED !!!

There was a report (does anyone have it?) that our brothers in Russia have withdrawn all appeals and have instead requested the largest possible courtroom for the April 5th hearing, the 'overflow' courtroom. Though I haven't confirmed it (you may know all about it) it is exactly what they would do - play this out before the largest possible audience. 
It is just how Jehovah is having it play out on the world wide today. The GB invites us to write, to bring our gift to the altar. Our people respond to such an enthusiastic degree that national Post Offices are getting crushed.  Of course, this leads to publicity everywhere as to just why that is, and the reason is astounding to non-Witnesses. I'd be surprised if every Witness in the world does not write to Putin or one of his chums. Surely, the world takes notice of a faith where each member takes such an interest in each other - especially since they risk getting run over in the parking lot of their own church once services are over. Putin may just load the letters on supertankers and sink them at sea - just how do you cope with millions of unexpected letters - but he cannot fail to be know that they exist.
Those who hate Jehovah's Witnesses join in the fray, writing letters in support of the ban, like the Edomites of Psalm 137 who screamed "lay it bare!' This almost makes it better, for it adds to the tonnage. But more importantly, everyone takes their place on the world stage. Let the people firmly and publicly divide themselves into the sheep or goats category. Perhaps the GB is luring them all, as with hooks in their jaws.
Meanwhile, note how our people conduct themselves. Note how extraordinarily respectful they are (as is seen in our videos) toward  Russian authorities. Note the Sept 2016 Study Wt article on Defending the Good News before courts, which is being used today as a template. Note how our respectful response is so contrary to what the world would expect that it only adds to the witness.
Let every person in the world become aware of and take a stand on this issue. If it is to be, let Russian officials look themselves in the mirror and publicly declare: "I believe, what with all the villains and scoundrels on the loose today in our country, that taking out Jehovah's Witnesses is the most important thing we can do."
The campaign may fail in its goal of swaying the minds of Russian officials. But it will not fall short in its goal of giving a massive witness. it will not fall short in stepping up the preaching work worldwide, as it presents fresh evidence that 'the time left is reduced.' It will not fall short in giving our Russian brothers tremendous reinforcement. For the rest of their lives, persons will approach them and say: "You crushed our Post Office. Just what kind of people are you, anyway?"
After all, if any of the hard or soft apostates here suffered the same hardships our Russian brothers are suffering, does anyone think their fellow apostates would come to their aid? Or would they just be roadkill?