RELIGIOUS DEMOGRAPHY
Russia’s population is about 142 million and are of many beliefs. The percentage attending Russian Orthodox worship is at most about 3 per cent.
APPG Commentary on the current state of Freedom of Religion or Belief 2020
Serious systemic violations of many human rights take place. Long-running “anti-extremism” campaigns against Jehovah’s Witnesses and Muslims who meet to read theologian Said Nursi’s works continue. As of 23 November 2020, eight Jehovah’s Witnesses and one Muslim who met with others to study Nursi’s works are in labour camps as “extremists.” Of 21 Jehovah’s Witnesses convicted of “extremism” charges since late July 2020, six were given jail terms and 13 suspended sentences. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has condemned the “ever-growing number of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia who have been arrested, detained and charged with criminal activity on the basis of mere exercise of freedom of religion.” There were at least 86 house searches between late October and mid-December, and three Muslims who met with others to study Islam with the writings of Said Nursi are known to be under criminal investigation.
In what was a first for Russia, after Yevgeny Kim was in April 2019 released from a labour camp (where he had been jailed for meeting with other Muslims to study his faith), he was deprived of his Russian citizenship leaving him stateless, fined, and ordered to be deported. The excuse given by the court was that he did not have a Russian internal passport. He did not have this as officials confiscated it the day before. Similarly, in April 2020 Jehovah’s Witnesses Feliks Makhammadiyev and Konstantin Bazhenov were also deprived of Russian citizenship. Like Kim, Makhammadiyev is now stateless. Russia has been trying to deport Kim since 2019, and might try to deport Makhammadiyev and Bazhenov when they complete their jail terms.
Russia is using Interpol Red Notices to try to get back at least three citizens now based abroad to prosecute them for exercising freedom of religion or belief. Two are Muslims who met to study their faith using the writings of Said Nursi. These Red Notices violate Interpol’s rules, which ban their use in ways that violate individuals’ human rights.
Impunity for torturers has long existed. Muslim prisoner of conscience Yevgeny Kim following his 2015 arrest, and seven Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2019 were tortured. One of the victims was re-arrested after reporting the torture, and two of the officials implicated have been given awards. Similarly, in February 2020 prison guards tortured five Jehovah’s Witness prisoners of conscience in Orenburg, and National Guard officers tortured two adherents in Chita. The torture included beatings, choking and electric shocks. Contrary to international legal obligations, no-one has been arrested and put on criminal trial for any of these tortures, or more recent cases of torture during raids on Jehovah’s Witness homes in Moscow.
Other freedom of religion and belief violations include use of July 2016 “anti-terrorism” restrictions against the sharing of beliefs and other manifestations of human rights. For example, from January to June 2020 there were 98 prosecutions of religious organisations and individuals for not showing a full official name – even though such prosecutions of individuals are illegal. Most resulted in guilty verdicts and fines, and the largest increase in the number of prosecutions by religious community was of Muslims.
FCDO Human Rights Report 2020
The persecution of religious minorities continued, including the detention of Jehovah’s Witnesses who were labelled as ‘extremist’ and therefore banned. At least ten people remained imprisoned, 417 under criminal investigation, and 35 in pre-trial detention across Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea.
APPG Commentary on the current state of Freedom of Religion or Belief 2019
Russia’s population is about 142 million people. Many Russians describe themselves as Orthodox Christian but the percentage attending services is at most about 3 per cent. There are also centuries-old communities of Buddhists, non-Orthodox Christians, Jews, indigenous pagans and Muslims, as well as atheists and followers of many other beliefs.
Serious systemic violations of many human rights take place. Long-running “anti-extremism” campaigns against Jehovah’s Witnesses and Muslim readers of works by theologian Said Nursi have led to, among other things, nationwide literature bans with the possessors of such texts being liable to criminal prosecution.
The most high-profile escalation was the April 2017 total ban on the Jehovah’s Witnesses, making any Jehovah’s Witnesses who exercise freedom of religion and belief liable to criminal prosecution. Jehovah’s Witnesses are increasingly being detained for long periods of a year or more. As of the end of May 2019, 200 Jehovah’s Witnesses (aged between 19 and 84) are known to have been charged or named as suspects for “extremism”-related “crimes” such as meeting together to study their beliefs. Of these, 30 were in detention, 28 under house arrest and 76 under travel restrictions. On 23 May the appeal of one, Dennis Christensen, was rejected and he began a six-year jail sentence.
.
In what appears to be a first for Russia, Muslim Yevgeny Kim was, after his April 2019 release from a labour camp (where he had been jailed for meeting with other Muslims to study his faith) deprived of his Russian citizenship. The excuse given by the court which made him stateless, fined him, and ordered him to be deported was that he did not have a Russian internal passport. He did not have this as officials confiscated it the day before.
There can also be impunity for torturers in Russia. Contrary to the country’s international legal obligations, no official responsible for the torture of either Muslim prisoner of conscience Yevgeny Kim following his 2015 arrest, or seven Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2019, has been arrested or put on criminal trial. One of the victims was re-arrested after reporting the torture, and two of the officials implicated have been given awards.
In July 2016, “anti-terrorism” restrictions were introduced for, among other things, sharing beliefs. Only people with permission from state-registered belief organisations can now share beliefs, and the restrictions also: restrict the beliefs that can be shared; restrict the places where beliefs may be shared; and ban any beliefs from being shared in residential buildings. Converting residential property to religious use – something which very many belief groups do across Russia – is also banned. In 2018, at least 56 organisations and 103 individuals were prosecuted under these restrictions. Lawyer Mikhail Frolov told Forum 18 that “believers don’t understand what they can and can’t do, and because of heavy fines they don’t want to take the risk and therefore significantly reduce their activity, especially in public”. Complex, contradictory, and often inconsistently applied laws can also result in religious communities losing places of worship.
FCO Human Rights Report 2019
The persecution of religious minorities including Jehovah’s Witnesses intensified, with 489 house searches in 2019 and over 300 Jehovah’s Witnesses facing criminal charges by the end of the year, according to The European Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In 2019 18 Jehovah’s Witnesses received jail sentences, with Denis Christensen receiving a six year term for practicing his faith.
In the UK Parliament, 2020
No questions asked.
US State Department International Religious Freedom report 2020