Photo: Broken windows in the house of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Voronezh region, May 2017

Crimes Against Believers

New cases of vandalism against Jehovah's Witnesses: Voronezh and Sverdlovsk regions

Voronezh Region,   Sverdlovsk Region

Late in the evening of May 6, 2017, unknown persons drove a car to a residential building on the street of the Ministry of Railways in the village. Novokhopersky (Voronezh region) and broke glass in the apartment of a local resident who professes the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. The action was accompanied by shouts, the meaning of which the woman did not hear.

In addition, on the night of May 14, 2017 in Yekaterinburg, on the porch of the building where the services of Jehovah's Witnesses were held, unknown persons applied an offensive inscription.

The decision of the Supreme Court against the organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses, issued on April 20, 2017 and which did not enter into force, caused a wave of aggressive actions against the followers of this religion. Incidents also occurred in St. Petersburg, in the Kaliningrad, Moscow, Penza, Rostov, Tula regions, and the Krasnoyarsk Territory .