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Kremlin: Situation with Jehovah’s Witnesses requires additional analysis

In 2017, Russia’s Supreme Court declared Jehovah’s Witnesses to be an extremist organization and outlawed its activity throughout Russia, thereby upholding the Justice Ministry’s requests

© Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS

MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/. Particular cases related to the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious organization outlawed in Russia will be studied in detail, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

Peskov commented on complaints about persecution against the organization’s members, which human rights activists voiced to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the December 11 meeting of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights. The Russian president noted that Jehovah’s Witnesses are also Christians and he did not understand why they were persecuted.

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"Here we need to analyze each particular case," Peskov said, noting that at the council’s meeting the examples of particular situations were discussed. "It is impossible here to solve this problem conceptually because there are various pros and cons, but an additional study on this issue will be carried out at least," he said.

In April 2017, Russia’s Supreme Court declared Jehovah’s Witnesses to be an extremist organization and outlawed its activity throughout Russia, thereby upholding the Justice Ministry’s requests. The court declared the immediate shutdown of all 395 local chapters of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia and transferred the organization’s assets into state custody.

Jehovah’s Witnesses is an international religious organization that supports offbeat views on the essence of the Christian faith and provides special interpretations of many commonly accepted notions.

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