On July 16th, the Federal Security Service (FSB) led a search of a building used by the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Yekaterinburg, the ANN Information Agency reports (Rus). Officers initiated the search in connection with a criminal case against the Witnesses launched in Asbest, a city some 70 kilometers away. The local prosecutor’s office believes that books, flyers and magazines distributed by the group are “extremist”. FSB agents seized literature, to investigate the prosecution’s assertion that it is “overtly, clearly and directly aimed at inciting hatred, propaganda of the exclusivity of the Jehovah faith, and the humiliation of human dignity on account of a person’s attitude towards religion.”

Meanwhile, proceedings against another branch of the Jehovah’s Witnesses were being seen by a regional court in the southern Rostov oblast. As the the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis reported, “Jehovists” from the city of Taganrog were being similarly tried for “extremism” under article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code (“Incitement of National, Racial, or Religious Enmity”).

Several days later, “Jehovists” in the northern city of Murmansk were prevented from holding services in a local stadium, set to take place between July 18th and 20th. The Rosbalt Information Agency writes that prosecutors broke a contract with the group, citing a law that sporting facilities cannot be used for religious purposes. Authorities had previously refused to grant the group land for a religious center in May 2007.

Sergey Mozgovoy, the head of a committee on freedom of conscience in the opposition National Assembly, commented on the rising pressure against religious groups to the Sobkor®ru news agency. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, he said, were the last in a series of organizations to be rolled over by the “compactor of state repression.”

“’Religious safety.’ ‘Spiritual safety.’ Lately, leading officials have started using such concepts in their speeches,” Mozgovoy said, “clearly drawing a parallel with ‘national safety.'”

Regarding the accusations of “extremism” handed down to the Jehovists, Mozgovoy said that the texts of nearly all religions have fragments which could be taken as “propaganda of exclusivity,” or seen as “inciting enmity.”

The expert believes there are two fundamental reasons why the Jehovah’s Witnesses have been targeted by authorities. “First of all, the authorities cannot use them for their interests,” he said, “ since they distance themselves from politics and official bureaucratic structures out of principle. Secondly, this denomination is expanding dynamically.”

The Jehovah’s Witnesses are an international religious group with a Christian foundation, although the organization’s dogmatic teachings differ significantly from those of other mainstream Christian denominations. The group is known for its aggressive door-to-door evangelism.

According to its own figures, the organization numbers around 7 million members, with more than 101 thousand congregations.

In 2004, the Moscow congregation was stripped of its registration and banned by the Moscow Golovinsky District Court, after a multi-year trial. This has not kept the Witnesses from meeting openly for prayers.

In January 2007, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled in favor of an appeal by a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses from Chelyabinsk, whose service was interrupted by the government. The court awarded the group 30 thousand euro (982,000 RUB or 47,400 USD) as compensation for psychological damages, and more than 60 thousand euro (1.96 million RUB or 94,800 USD) for costs.

Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church believe that the move will undermine the fundamentals of spiritual education in Russia and threaten Russia’s institution of priesthood.

“Even though the Ministry of Defense assured us that the conscription of clergymen will raise morality in the armed forces, these are absolutely empty words. The truth is that a priest dressed in a soldier’s uniform can, like any ordinary person, exert a share of their moral resources, and by no means enrich the army with morality or guidance,” said Ksenia Chernega, the legal counsel of Moscow’s patriarchate, in a statement published online.

The motivation for the change remained unexplained, and the Ministry of Defense declined to comment on the introduction of conscription for the country’s future spiritual leaders.

The new rules are problematic for the faithful, since the Canon law of the Orthodox Church forbids clergymen from entering the military service as soldiers. Furthermore, members of the Church must technically be defrocked for participating in the military. Aside from that, priests are also barred from taking up arms or harming any living creature.

The letter, which included the signatures of Nobel Laureates Vitaly Ginzburg and Zhores Alferov, received moderate coverage in the Russian press. But the nearly hysterical reaction to it in some quarters is notable and reveals how the Kremlin is playing the religion card. A website of the Kremlin’s United Russia party put up a revolting doctored photo of Ginzburg behind bars, wearing a yarmulke, and with the number “666” on a prison uniform. They now claim that Other Russia, which has issued a statement supporting the scientists, “are joining in the persecution of Orthodox Christianity.”

We spoke out to defend Russia’s rich heritage as a multi-ethnic state, a state that must provide equal treatment to all religions and their followers. Forced indoctrination of our citizens in a religion is as horrific as the abolishment of religion by the Soviets. This sudden embrace of the Church by careerist and corrupt politicians is beyond cynical. They are also heading full speed toward conflict with the Muslim populations in North Caucasus, which serves the Kremlin’s purpose of manufacturing threats to the nation as the election season approaches. They call our support of the scientists strange, but it is only a continuation of our belief in democratic values and the words of our constitution. We sincerely wonder if the members of United Russia have ever read that document.