In a statement issued July 19, the U.S. State Department called on Russia to end its persecution of minority religions. This was prompted by the Russia Supreme Court’s decision upholding an April ruling labeling Jehovah’s Witnesses “extremist.”
“The Russian Supreme Court’s decision this week against the Jehovah’s Witnesses is the latest in a disturbing trend of persecution of religious minorities in Russia," said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert. “We urge the Russian authorities to lift the ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses’ activities in Russia, to reverse the closing of the Jehovah’s Witnesses Administrative Center and to release any members of religious minorities that continue to be unjustly detained for so-called ‘extremist’ activities.”
Nauert also called on the Kremlin “to respect the right of all to exercise the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief.”
In response to the Supreme Court’s decision, Yaroslav Sivulskiy, a member of the European Association of Jehovah’s Christian Witnesses, told Reuters,”We plan to appeal this at the European Court of Human Rights as soon as we can.”
