Russia: JW leader (Alexander Kalistratov) on trial

behemot

MOSCOW (AP) — The religious group Jehovah's Witness says their local leader is being persecuted in Russia under a vague anti-extremism law.

The group said Monday that Alexander Kalistratov is going on trial in the Siberian town of Gorno-Altaisk for alleged "incitement of religious enmity and hatred."

The group's spokesman Robert Warren said the trial is part of a "larger problem" that Jehovah's Witnesses have been facing in Russia and called the trial a "misapplication" of Russia' 2002 anti-extremism law.

Human rights advocates claim that law is used to crack down on dissidents and religious groups that Russia's dominant Orthodox Church disapproves of.

In September 2009, a court in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don banned a regional branch of Jehovah's Witness and outlawed dozens of its publications.

source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h0TaJbaJaqaeATNhE4LbxyQ1XKJg?docId=09387696f2704483abdc2c6539eca3e2

Read the JW side of the story here:

http://www.jw-media.org/rus/20101110.htm

Soldier77

Who is this Alexander? Is he a CO/DO or just an elder in a congregation? More background on this guy would be nice. But I will say, I wish they would crack down on the anti-extremism law worldwide. That could or would spell the end of the WTS!

yknot

burn...... I don't like the tone of the Russian wording on this......

What to do with a cult that thrives on 'persecution'?

Don't persecute so much as 'educate'!

Prayers for this Brother and his family......

When they arrest a GB and haul them into trial maybe then I will be supportive.....

james_woods

I guess almost everybody here enjoys it when the JWs suffer some kind of legal setback - but this disturbs me on another level:

It certainly makes it look like current-day Russia is falling back to the old style of hard line government as under the communist U.S.S.R.

That is not a good sign - and this kind of repression is more likely to solidify the Russian JWs (persecution complex indeed) than do any real harm to them.

Mad Sweeney

Russia has handled the JWs/WT all wrong from the get-go. A massive education campaign would work MUCH better at protecting Russian citizens from the Borg, and it may even get some borderline/fence-sitting Dubs to get out. Persecution in Russia is what the Watchtower Corporation WANTS.

Anti-extremist laws are fine if they are enforced evenly and fairly AND the public is taught exactly why they are important in each specific case.

james_woods

Anti-extremist laws are fine if they are enforced evenly and fairly AND the public is taught exactly why they are important in each specific case.

+++ Correct. Ironically, both the U.S. and France have done far more damage to the WTBTS simply by imposing tax laws than this kind of thing.

Yan Bibiyan

Mad (edited to say "and James Woods"), I have to disagree.

Anti-extremist angle is what gets people's attention in Russia. It is a hot button along the lines of their Chechen problem. Let the few dubs cry persecution all day long, but for the public at large the extremist label would stick much better as a deterrent. Not to mention that the way it started (the JW anti-government brochure) is indeed an extremist approach.

I am sorry but you can't call the current government a return of a Stalinist regime (in so many words) and expect to be dealt with through an educational campaign....

-Yan

OUTLAW

Good!..

Russian JW`s have distributed WBT$ literature attacking other Religions..

Which is against Russian law..

Russian JW`s have Distributed WBT$ Literature attacking the Russian Government..

Waging war on the Russian Government is not a religious right..

Where ever they are in the world..

JW`s do rotten shit to everyone around them,because the WBT$ says so..

Then claim persecution,when they get a Boot up the Ass..

It`s time individual Jehovah`s Witness`s,were made responsible for their actions..

........................ ...OUTLAW

OUTLAW

Double post

........................ ...OUTLAW

Gayle

I do have empathy for the controlled JWs in foreign countries, Russia and Phillipines, etc. accepting their own "persecution," as their leadership - GB - in the U.S., are all 'comfy-cozy' in their own expense free life, heading to their paradisaic grounds in upstate New York, and living in their own love- bubble world.

These poor persecuted ones need pictures of their GB in their living quarters and perks.

Russia: JW leader (Alexander Kalistratov) on trial

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