Putin’s crackdown casts a wide net, ensnaring the LGBTQ+ community, lawyers and many others
Prominent rights groups in Russia have been outlawed or classified as agents of foreigners.
LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY
The crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights has gone on for more than a decade and often was accompanied by Putin’s criticism of Western nations trying to impose their values on Russia. In 2022, authorities adopted a law banning propaganda of “nontraditional sexual relations” among adults, effectively outlawing any public endorsement of LGBTQ+ rights.
Another law enacted in 2023 prohibited gender transitioning procedures and gender- affirming care, as well as changing a person’s gender in official documents and public records.
In November, the Supreme Court banned what the government called the LGBTQ+ “movement” in Russia, labeling it as an extremist organization. That effectively outlawed any LGBTQ+ activism. Shortly afterward, authorities started imposing fines for displaying rainbow-colored items.
Igor Kochetkov, human rights advocate and founder of the Russian LGBT Network, told AP the Supreme Court ruling was more about ideology than anything else.
“So far we haven’t seen attempts to ban gay relations” and criminalize them, as the Soviet Union did, Kochetkov said. Rather, it’s an attempt to suppress “any independent opinion that doesn’t fit with the official state ideology … and any organized civic activity that the government can’t control,” he added.
RELIGIOUS BELIEVERS
In perhaps a similar vein, the government, closely allied with the Russian Orthodox Church, has cracked down on smaller religious denominations and groups, banning some. Authorities went further with Jehovah’s Witnesses, prosecuting hundreds of believers across the country, often simply for gathering to pray.
The Supreme Court in 2017 declared Jehovah’s Witnesses to be an extremist organization, exposing those involved with it to potential criminal charges.
Jehovah’s Witnesses spokesman Jarrod Lopes said over 400 believers have been jailed since then, and 131 men and women are in prison. Nearly 800 Jehovah’s Witnesses have faced charges, and over 500 were added to Russia’s register of extremists and terrorists.
“It’s absurd to us, because … part of our belief system is to obey the authorities. We want to be good citizens. We want to help our community,” he told AP. “We’re also not anti-government, we are neutral. We’re not going to stage a protest.”
In 2018, Putin himself said “Jehovah’s Witnesses are Christians, too, I don’t quite understand why clamp down on them,” and he promised to look into it. But the number of arrests and raids targeting them only grew.
Putin has distanced himself from the law enforcement and security structures that carry out the crackdowns, says Tatyana Stanovaya, senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.
“They have a certain domain, and they have a mandate in this domain, and they act in accordance with it,” Stanovaya says. “Putin knows it and agrees with it. … It’s convenient for him.”
Prominent rights groups in Russia have been outlawed or classified as agents of foreigners.
March 7, 2024
By Dasha Litvinova
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — It’s not just opposition politicians who are targeted in the crackdown by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government in recent years. Also falling victim are independent voices as well as those who don’t conform to what the state sees as the country’s “traditional values.”
Russia’s once-thriving free press after the collapse of the Soviet Union has been largely reduced to either state-controlled media or independent journalists operating from abroad, with few critical outlets still working in the country. Prominent rights groups have been outlawed or classified as agents of foreigners. Lawyers who represented dissidents have been prosecuted. LGBTQ+ activists have been labeled “extremists.”
A look at those who have come under attack during Putin’s 24-year rule that is likely to be extended by six more years in this month’s presidential election:
Independent news sites largely have been blocked in Russia since the first weeks of the war in Ukraine. Many have moved their newsrooms abroad and continue to operate, accessible in Russia via virtual private networks, or VPNs. Reporting inside Russia or earning money off Russian advertisers has been difficult.
Russian authorities since 2021 also have labeled dozens of outlets and individual journalists as ”foreign agents” – a designation implying additional government scrutiny and carrying strong pejorative connotations aimed at discrediting the recipient. Some have also been outlawed as “undesirable organizations” under a 2015 law that makes involvement with such organizations a criminal offense.
Journalists have been arrested and imprisoned on a variety of charges.
“The Russian authorities decided to destroy civil society institutions and independent journalism completely after Feb. 24, 2022,” said Ivan Kolpakov, chief editor of Russia’s most popular independent news site Meduza, referring to the date of the invasion. Meduza was declared “undesirable” in January 2023.
More restrictions appear to be coming. Parliament passed a law banning advertisers from doing business with “foreign agents,” likely affecting not just news sites but also blogs on YouTube that need advertising and are a popular source of news and analysis.
Journalist Katerina Gordeyeva initially said she was suspending her YouTube channel with 1.6 million subscribers due to the new law but changed her mind after an outpouring of support. “Giving up now would be too simple and too easy a decision,” she said. “We will try to hang in there.”
RIGHTS GROUPS
Dozens of rights groups, charities and other nongovernmental organizations have been labeled “foreign agents” and outlawed as “undesirable” in recent years. Many had to shut down.
In December 2021, a court in Moscow ordered the closure of Memorial, one of Russia’s oldest and most prominent human rights organizations. It drew international acclaim for its studies of repression in the Soviet Union; several months after the ruling, it won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. In yet another crippling blow, its 70-year-old co-chair, Oleg Orlov, was sentenced last month to 2½ years in prison over criticism of the war.
Another prominent rights group leader behind bars is Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Golos, which monitored Russian elections since 2000. He is in pre-trial detention on charges widely seen as an attempt to pressure the group ahead of this month’s vote.
His arrest last year wasn’t a surprise, said the group’s other leader, Stanislav Andreychuk, in an interview with The Associated Press, because Golos has been under pressure since it detailed widespread violations in the 2011 parliamentary election that led to mass protests.
Pressure against Golos came in waves, however, and at times, the group was able to work constructively with election authorities. It even won two presidential grants.
“We are like a town on a high river bank,” Andriychuk said. “The river eats away at the bank, and the bank recedes slowly. … At some point, we found ourselves on the cliffside.”
LAWYERS
Lawyers who represent Kremlin critics and work on politically motivated cases also have faced growing pressure. Some prominent ones have left Russia, fearing prosecution.
Human rights and legal aid group Agora was labeled “undesirable” in 2023, making its operations and any dealings with it illegal.
Three lawyers who represented Alexei Navalny are jailed on charges of involvement with an extremist organization. Associates of the late opposition leader said it was a way to isolate him while in prison.
Prominent human rights lawyer Ivan Pavlov told AP the pressure has scared some attorneys away from political cases. Pavlov left Russia in 2021 while defending former journalist Ivan Safronov on treason charges. After Pavlov spoke out about the case, authorities opened a criminal investigation against him and barred him from using the phone and the internet. “They simply paralyzed my work,” he said.
Dmitry Talantov, another lawyer for Safronov, was arrested in 2022 for criticizing the war and is on trial. He faces up to 10 years in prison.
By Dasha Litvinova
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — It’s not just opposition politicians who are targeted in the crackdown by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government in recent years. Also falling victim are independent voices as well as those who don’t conform to what the state sees as the country’s “traditional values.”
Russia’s once-thriving free press after the collapse of the Soviet Union has been largely reduced to either state-controlled media or independent journalists operating from abroad, with few critical outlets still working in the country. Prominent rights groups have been outlawed or classified as agents of foreigners. Lawyers who represented dissidents have been prosecuted. LGBTQ+ activists have been labeled “extremists.”
A look at those who have come under attack during Putin’s 24-year rule that is likely to be extended by six more years in this month’s presidential election:
Independent news sites largely have been blocked in Russia since the first weeks of the war in Ukraine. Many have moved their newsrooms abroad and continue to operate, accessible in Russia via virtual private networks, or VPNs. Reporting inside Russia or earning money off Russian advertisers has been difficult.
Russian authorities since 2021 also have labeled dozens of outlets and individual journalists as ”foreign agents” – a designation implying additional government scrutiny and carrying strong pejorative connotations aimed at discrediting the recipient. Some have also been outlawed as “undesirable organizations” under a 2015 law that makes involvement with such organizations a criminal offense.
Journalists have been arrested and imprisoned on a variety of charges.
“The Russian authorities decided to destroy civil society institutions and independent journalism completely after Feb. 24, 2022,” said Ivan Kolpakov, chief editor of Russia’s most popular independent news site Meduza, referring to the date of the invasion. Meduza was declared “undesirable” in January 2023.
More restrictions appear to be coming. Parliament passed a law banning advertisers from doing business with “foreign agents,” likely affecting not just news sites but also blogs on YouTube that need advertising and are a popular source of news and analysis.
Journalist Katerina Gordeyeva initially said she was suspending her YouTube channel with 1.6 million subscribers due to the new law but changed her mind after an outpouring of support. “Giving up now would be too simple and too easy a decision,” she said. “We will try to hang in there.”
RIGHTS GROUPS
Dozens of rights groups, charities and other nongovernmental organizations have been labeled “foreign agents” and outlawed as “undesirable” in recent years. Many had to shut down.
In December 2021, a court in Moscow ordered the closure of Memorial, one of Russia’s oldest and most prominent human rights organizations. It drew international acclaim for its studies of repression in the Soviet Union; several months after the ruling, it won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. In yet another crippling blow, its 70-year-old co-chair, Oleg Orlov, was sentenced last month to 2½ years in prison over criticism of the war.
Another prominent rights group leader behind bars is Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Golos, which monitored Russian elections since 2000. He is in pre-trial detention on charges widely seen as an attempt to pressure the group ahead of this month’s vote.
His arrest last year wasn’t a surprise, said the group’s other leader, Stanislav Andreychuk, in an interview with The Associated Press, because Golos has been under pressure since it detailed widespread violations in the 2011 parliamentary election that led to mass protests.
Pressure against Golos came in waves, however, and at times, the group was able to work constructively with election authorities. It even won two presidential grants.
“We are like a town on a high river bank,” Andriychuk said. “The river eats away at the bank, and the bank recedes slowly. … At some point, we found ourselves on the cliffside.”
LAWYERS
Lawyers who represent Kremlin critics and work on politically motivated cases also have faced growing pressure. Some prominent ones have left Russia, fearing prosecution.
Human rights and legal aid group Agora was labeled “undesirable” in 2023, making its operations and any dealings with it illegal.
Three lawyers who represented Alexei Navalny are jailed on charges of involvement with an extremist organization. Associates of the late opposition leader said it was a way to isolate him while in prison.
Prominent human rights lawyer Ivan Pavlov told AP the pressure has scared some attorneys away from political cases. Pavlov left Russia in 2021 while defending former journalist Ivan Safronov on treason charges. After Pavlov spoke out about the case, authorities opened a criminal investigation against him and barred him from using the phone and the internet. “They simply paralyzed my work,” he said.
Dmitry Talantov, another lawyer for Safronov, was arrested in 2022 for criticizing the war and is on trial. He faces up to 10 years in prison.
LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY
The crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights has gone on for more than a decade and often was accompanied by Putin’s criticism of Western nations trying to impose their values on Russia. In 2022, authorities adopted a law banning propaganda of “nontraditional sexual relations” among adults, effectively outlawing any public endorsement of LGBTQ+ rights.
Another law enacted in 2023 prohibited gender transitioning procedures and gender- affirming care, as well as changing a person’s gender in official documents and public records.
In November, the Supreme Court banned what the government called the LGBTQ+ “movement” in Russia, labeling it as an extremist organization. That effectively outlawed any LGBTQ+ activism. Shortly afterward, authorities started imposing fines for displaying rainbow-colored items.
Igor Kochetkov, human rights advocate and founder of the Russian LGBT Network, told AP the Supreme Court ruling was more about ideology than anything else.
“So far we haven’t seen attempts to ban gay relations” and criminalize them, as the Soviet Union did, Kochetkov said. Rather, it’s an attempt to suppress “any independent opinion that doesn’t fit with the official state ideology … and any organized civic activity that the government can’t control,” he added.
RELIGIOUS BELIEVERS
In perhaps a similar vein, the government, closely allied with the Russian Orthodox Church, has cracked down on smaller religious denominations and groups, banning some. Authorities went further with Jehovah’s Witnesses, prosecuting hundreds of believers across the country, often simply for gathering to pray.
The Supreme Court in 2017 declared Jehovah’s Witnesses to be an extremist organization, exposing those involved with it to potential criminal charges.
Jehovah’s Witnesses spokesman Jarrod Lopes said over 400 believers have been jailed since then, and 131 men and women are in prison. Nearly 800 Jehovah’s Witnesses have faced charges, and over 500 were added to Russia’s register of extremists and terrorists.
“It’s absurd to us, because … part of our belief system is to obey the authorities. We want to be good citizens. We want to help our community,” he told AP. “We’re also not anti-government, we are neutral. We’re not going to stage a protest.”
In 2018, Putin himself said “Jehovah’s Witnesses are Christians, too, I don’t quite understand why clamp down on them,” and he promised to look into it. But the number of arrests and raids targeting them only grew.
Putin has distanced himself from the law enforcement and security structures that carry out the crackdowns, says Tatyana Stanovaya, senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.
“They have a certain domain, and they have a mandate in this domain, and they act in accordance with it,” Stanovaya says. “Putin knows it and agrees with it. … It’s convenient for him.”
The men received sentences of up to seven years in a penal colony for practicing their faith.
Video of defendants in the Irkutsk case in a Russian courtroom for an April 2023 hearing. (Photo courtesy of Jehovah’s Witnesses)
March 7, 2024
By Kathryn Post
(RNS) — Nine Jehovah’s Witnesses were convicted of extremism by a Russian court on Tuesday (March 5), receiving sentences of up to seven years in a penal colony for practicing their faith. Of those convicted, eight had already served more than two years in pretrial detention, often in solitary confinement, according to a spokesperson for the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They plan to appeal the decision.
“Either I am one of Jehovah’s Witnesses or I am an extremist. It is impossible to be both at the same time,” Aleksey Solnechny said in Russian at court on Jan. 24, where he received a seven-year sentence. “And I declare: I am one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, but I am not an extremist!”
In the fall of 2021, Russian officers raided more than a dozen Jehovah’s Witnesses’ homes in Irkutsk and the Irkutsk region, subjecting two families — Anatoly and Greta Razdobarov and Nikolay and Liliya Merinov — to beatings and torture. The two men were later called to be witnesses in the cases against their Jehovah’s Witness peers.
The officers suspected the Jehovah’s Witnesses of violating the Russian Federation’s ban on organizing the activities of an extremist group. In 2017, the Russian Federation’s Supreme Court banned the Witnesses’ activities and liquidated their legal entities. Since then, almost 800 Jehovah’s Witnesses have been criminally charged, according to the spokesperson, Jarrod Lopes.
The men charged in the case include Yaroslav Kalin, Sergey Kosteyev, Nikolay Martynov, Mikhail Moysh, Igor Popov, Denis Sarazhakov, Aleksey Solnechny, Andrey Tolmachev and Sergey Vasiliyev. They have reported receiving hundreds of letters of support while in detainment, during which, several said, they experienced cold temperatures, isolation, dim lighting and smells from dead rodents. The conditions have contributed to their poor health, they said.
Top row, from left: Nikolay Martynov, Sergey Kosteyev, Yaroslav Kalin and Mikhail Moysh. Bottom row, from left: Igor Popov, Denis Sarazhakov, Aleksey Solnechny, Andrey Tolmachev and Sergey Vasiliyev. (Photos courtesy of Jehovah’s Witnesses)
RELATED: Putin’s crackdown casts a wide net, ensnaring the LGBTQ+ community, lawyers and many others
At the trial at the Oktyabrsky District Court of Irkutsk between December 2022 and March 2024, the state prosecutor showed books said to be confiscated during the raids as well as secret recordings of worship services. Those charged contended that they did not violate any laws and denied they had promoted extremism. Their religious beliefs, they claimed, are separate from Jehovah’s Witnesses’ legal entities, which were shut down in 2017.
“The charges were largely based on secret audio recordings of worship services, where the men were praying, singing Christian songs and reading from the Bible. Ironically, one of the passages read was Psalm 34:14: ‘Seek peace and pursue it,’” said Lopes, referring to the Bible’s Book of Psalms.
“What does it say about a legal system that convicts people of extremist activity for reading a Bible verse that promotes peace? … We implore Russian officials to reconsider its misconceptions about Jehovah’s Witnesses and allow these peace-loving men and women to worship freely in their beloved homeland as Witnesses do in some 240 other lands.”
Jehovah’s Witnesses go to trial against Norway after state registration is revoked
‘It’s certainly the most important trial about a religious freedom issue in Norway in decades,’ said Willy Fautré, director of Human Rights Without Frontiers.
Oslo District Court in Norway is home to an ongoing trial after Norway deregistered the Jehovah’s Witnesses last year.
Courtesy of Jehovah's Witnesses
January 16, 2024
By Kathryn Post
(RNS) — With its recognition of more than 700 registered faith communities, Norway is often admired as a bastion of religious freedom. But after Norway deregistered the Jehovah’s Witnesses last year, some human rights experts say that reputation could be in question. Now, the Jehovah’s Witnesses of Norway are suing the state for revoking their national registration and withholding state funds. According to Jehovah’s Witnesses, they are the first religious group to lose their national registration in Norway.
The trial, which began Jan. 8, will determine whether some practices of the Jehovah’s Witnesses violate Norway’s Religious Communities Act or whether withdrawing the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ registration violates their right to freedom of religion and freedom of association, as guaranteed in the European Convention on Human Rights.
“It’s certainly the most important trial about a religious freedom issue in Norway in decades,” Willy Fautré, director of the Brussels-based organization Human Rights Without Frontiers, told Religion News Service.
In January 2022, Valgerd Svarstad Haugland, the county governor of Oslo and Viken, in Norway, denied Jehovah’s Witnesses state grants for the year 2021 in response to concerns about what she perceived as exclusionary practices. The Jehovah’s Witnesses had received the grants, which currently amount to around $1.5 million annually, for three decades. These funds are typically used for international disaster relief work and supporting religious activity in Norway, including translating literature and building kingdom halls, according to Jørgen Pedersen, spokesperson for Jehovah’s Witnesses in Norway.
In an announcement originally written in Norwegian, the county governor of Oslo and Viken claimed that Jehovah’s Witnesses are forbidden to contact disfellowshipped members, as well as people who voluntarily dissociate, which can hinder a person’s ability to freely withdraw from the group. She also argued that Jehovah’s Witnesses may disfellowship children who have chosen to be baptized if they break the religious community’s rules, a practice she said constituted “negative social control” and violated children’s rights. These practices, the county governor argued, defy Norway’s Religious Communities Act. “We have assessed the offenses as systematic and intentional, and have therefore chosen to refuse grants,” the press release said.
In an email to RNS, Jehovah’s Witnesses spokesperson Jarrod Lopes said Witnesses only disfellowship an unrepentant member who “makes a practice” of serious violations of “the Bible’s moral code.” Even then, Lopes added, Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t force members to limit or cease association with former congregants, whether they’ve been disfellowshipped or withdrawn voluntarily — that’s up to individuals. “Congregation elders do not police the personal lives of congregants, nor do they exercise control over the faith of individual Jehovah’s Witnesses,” wrote Lopes.
Pedersen added that the serious sins that might lead to disfellowship include manslaughter, adultery and drug use. He said a congregation will always try to help an individual restore their relationship with God, but if the problem persists, Jehovah’s Witnesses feel compelled to respect the entire Bible, including instructions to not associate with unrepentant sinners, such as 1 Corinthians 5:11.
Though the Witnesses appealed the county governor’s decision, in September 2022 the Ministry for Children and Families upheld the ruling. In October that same year, the county governor said in a press release that unless Jehovah’s Witnesses would “rectify the conditions that led to the refusal of state subsidies,” they would lose registration, which they did a few months later, in December. Without its national registration, Jehovah’s Witnesses cannot perform marriages, and they lose entitlement to government grants.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses of Norway filed two lawsuits against the state in December 2022: one challenging the denial of state grants and another challenging their loss of registration. Those lawsuits have since been combined. Though the Oslo District Court initially granted the Jehovah’s Witnesses an injunction that suspended their deregistration until that case was argued, the Ministry challenged the injunction, and in April 2023, the court removed it.
As the trial plays out at the District Court of Oslo, Jason Wise, an attorney who is acting as a consultant on the case for the legal team representing the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Norway, said part of the Witnesses’ argument is that there is no evidence of harm and that it’s not the place of the state to interpret religious texts. The state continues to contend that the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ practices are in conflict with the Religious Communities Act, particularly, they claim, by exposing children to psychological violence.
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Since 2022, Jehovah’s Witnesses have reported an increase in vandalism, harassment and physical assaults in Norway. In September 2022, two Jehovah’s Witnesses in Harstad, Norway, reported that a man screamed at them and repeatedly attempted to hit one of them. That same month, a man in Kristiansand, Norway, reportedly set a Jehovah’s Witnesses mobile display car on fire, and a month later, someone attempted to set fire to a Jehovah’s Witnesses meeting place in Fauske, Norway.
“What we see now is that the state of Norway is taking a look at my beliefs, saying, we don’t like that, we don’t like that,” said Pedersen. Asking Jehovah’s Witnesses to change their beliefs, he said, is a “violation of my integrity as a person, as a religious person, as a person with a conscience. That’s the core issue of this case.”
Norway isn’t the only place where Jehovah’s Witnesses’ practices have been under scrutiny. In December, the Belgian Court of Cassation — the highest court in the Belgian judiciary — rejected an appeal of a lower court’s decision, ruling in favor of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ right to avoid contact with former members.
“Norway is just the tip of another phenomenon. That is a source of concern, because we see that there are more and more attempts in Europe by state institutions to interfere and intrude into the teachings and practices of religious groups, which is forbidden by the European Convention,” said Fautré. “The risk is they would open the door to more court cases against other religious groups.”
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