The Russian Federation submitted to the ECHR a response to the complaint of Jehovah's Witnesses about the ban on their legal entities

On March 23, 2018, Andrey Fedorov, Chief of Staff of the Commissioner of the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights, sent to the Strasbourg Court the observations of the Russian Federation on complaint No. 10188/17 "Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and Kalin v. Russian Federation". The European Court will consider this complaint as a matter of priority.

Although, in general, the authors of the document are trying to justify the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to liquidate and ban the activities of the "Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia", the official response of the Russian authorities contains a statement that should serve as a warning to all law enforcement agencies in Russia against the illegal persecution of believers. Thus, paragraph 91 of the above-mentioned document reads: "The authorities of the Russian Federation emphasize that the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 20.04.2017 and the appellate ruling of the Appellate Board of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 17.07.2017 do not assess the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses, do not contain a restriction or prohibition to practice the above teachings individually." Paragraph 90 separately explains that the above-mentioned decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation does not restrict the constitutional right of believing citizens to unite.

Jehovah's Witnesses, in turn, have the right to prepare their response to the comments of the authorities of the Russian Federation to the ECHR by May 7, 2018.