Source: The Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0622/p06s01-woeu.html

On June 22, 2004 The Christian Science Monitor reported, "A district court decision here to ban the Jehovah's Witnesses, upheld by the city's top appeals court last week, is either an isolated event or a chilling sign of reviving religious intolerance in Russia, depending on whom you ask. The judgment ends a six-year court battle by the Jehovah's Witnesses to maintain legal registration under Russia's 1997 law on religion. Without that, the group's 10,000-member Moscow community is forbidden to rent premises, print literature, or officially assemble. The court further ordered the Jehovah's Witnesses to 'terminate their activity,' which could subject members to fines or arrest simply for gathering in a private home or discussing their faith with friends. 'We may have to go back to meeting in the forest as Jehovah's Witnesses had to do in Soviet times,' says Christian Presber, spokesman for the group. 'This decision is like putting a bull's-eye on the back of every Jehovah's Witness and, by extension, everyone who's a member of a religious minority in Russia'...Most representatives of other registered churches have declined to comment on the case. Of those who do speak, many insist they have no difficulties working in Russia. But Mikhail Odintsov, an official liaison with public associations on behalf of the Kremlin's Human Rights Ombudsman, says many other religious groups are deeply worried by the ruling."