Court hearing of official seizure request of JW Russian property

by Listener 6 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Listener

  I found this on facebook -
  
  

  RUSSIAN AUTOMATIC TRANSLATION FOR ENGLISH.
  Attempt to seize foreign property by Russian authorities
  December 4, 2017
  On December 7, 2017, at 14:00, the Sestroretsky District Court of St. Petersburg will begin consideration of a lawsuit filed by the prosecutor's office aimed at removing a large real estate complex in St. Petersburg from the "Watchtower Society, Bibles and Treatises of Pennsylvania" foreign organization.
  We are talking about 14 buildings with an area of ​​33 thousand square meters, located on 10 hectares of landscaped territory in the village of Solnechnoye Resort area of ​​St. Petersburg. This complex has been openly owned since 2000 by the "Watchtower Society" - an association operating since 1884, serving the interests of Jehovah's Witnesses all over the world.
  The Russian Federation did not finance the construction of the complex. The abandoned pioneer camp was acquired on a commercial basis by Jehovah's Witnesses from one of the Russian enterprises. The ownership of this complex belonging to the Watchtower Society was officially registered by the authorized bodies of the Russian Federation and for 17 years it was not disputed by anyone. For these years, the "Watchtower Society" as the owner of the real estate transferred tens of millions of rubles to the Russian budget in the form of taxes.
  Contrary to official statements on the inviolability of private property in the Russian Federation, the prosecutor's office by its actions damages the country's business reputation. No one can feel protected in a state in which the property rights of even foreign associations on an international scale are openly violated.
  A hearing chaired by Judge Bogdanova NL will be held on December 7 at 14:00 in the Sestroretsk District Court at the address: Sestroretsk, ul. Volodarsky, 41.
  The Russian Federation did not finance the construction of the complex. The abandoned pioneer camp was acquired on a commercial basis by Jehovah's Witnesses from one of the Russian enterprises. The ownership of this complex belonging to the Watchtower Society was officially registered by the authorized bodies of the Russian Federation and for 17 years it was not disputed by anyone. For these years, the "Watchtower Society" as the owner of the real estate transferred tens of millions of rubles to the Russian budget in the form of taxes.
  Contrary to official statements on the inviolability of private property in the Russian Federation, the prosecutor's office by its actions damages the country's business reputation. No one can feel protected in a state in which the property rights of even foreign associations on an international scale are openly violated.
  A hearing chaired by Judge Bogdanova NL will be held on December 7 at 14:00 in the Sestroretsk District Court at the address: Sestroretsk, ul. Volodarsky, 41.
  https://jw-russia.org/news/17120412-268.html

  
  https://www.facebook.com/jwbrothers.org/
  
  
  
  
  
• 

  jwleaks

  I believe this land was given to Watchtower and the JWs at no cost by the township. Capital improvements were carried out by voluntary labor provided by Russian citizens with voluntary monetary donations by Russian citizens. However upon breaking Russian law Watchtower and the JWs forfeit the land.
• 

  Amelia Ashton

  If you read the comments they believe "Jehovah has it all under control", "it gets worse before it gets better" and "it shows how close the end is now".

  So sad. :(
• 

  Drearyweather

  However upon breaking Russian law

  Interesting and a bit confusing. Was the transfer of the land in 2000 to the WTBS of Pennsylvania illegal? If yes, Russia took no action up till now??
  
  
• 

  OrphanCrow

  Huh.

  Now, when property is the concern, the Watchtower Society becomes a "foreign association" that has been doing business in Russia.

  Did you notice that the word "religion" isn't used even once in the above report?

  jwleaks: I believe this land was given to Watchtower and the JWs at no cost by the township

  I thought the land was purchased. For a nominal amount (a symbolic fee is how this article describes the purchase price).

  A comment from the European exJW forum concerning the purchase price:

  1. The cost of buying the former pioneer camp
  was 135,000,000 rubles.
  Yes, it was a time when everything was badly depreciated, but even so, the coordinator of the Bethel in Selters, the German Willie Paul, skillfully traded with the seller, with a smile, but bent his line unrealistically
  until he achieved his goal .
  Yet this amount was not symbolic.

  The construction of the site is described here:

  JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES HAVE SETTLED IN THE SUBURBS OF SAINT PETERSBURG
  Michael Jackson donated 1.5 million dollars to his Russian brothers and sisters.
  by Oleg Silin
  Nezavisimaia gazeta, 2 July 1997
  In the suburbs of St. Petersburg in Solnechny village Russia's first administrative center of the Christian religious organization "Jehovah's Witnesses" has opened. The vast scope of this action is demonstrated in the fact that more than 2,000 delegates and guests from 44 countries attended this event.
  The Jehovah's Witnesses religious association arose in the second half of the nineteenth century in the USA. At present this organization number more than five million adherents. In our country is received official registration in 1991. Before that its activity was banned "because of its antisoviet tendencies." But as the members of the association emphasize, to this day the Jehovah's Witnesses do not know what the government actually accused them of.
  Whatever may be the case, the most widely varying rumors circulated, even including the claim that "members of the sect brutally murder their children, sacrificing them, and they even commit suicide themselves." "In fact," the director of the Russian administrative center, Vasily Kalin, declared at a press conference, "Witnesses do not hold radical views and they do not advocate practices that are different from what society recognizes as normal conduct. This is what principally distinguishes us from cults and sects." In his words, the basic goal of the Jehovah's Witnesses is the study of the Bible. They give chief honor to God the Father, whom the Bible calls Jehovah, and they do not believe in the immortality of the soul.
  More than 600 volunteers participated in the construction of the center in Solnechny village over the four and a half years it took. More than half of them were Russians and people from the republics of the former USSR. The rest came from Denmark, USA, Switzerland, Chile, Finland, Australia, and elsewhere. They deserve their due: they worked completely without pay and they center was built to European standards. In place of ruins of the remains of a Pioneer summer camp build in the 1960s they erected a four storey building complex equipped with state of the art technology, including a laundry and dry cleaners, a small furniture factory and clinic, cafeteria with its own bakery and kitchen, and seven residential blocks. At present about 300 Jehovah's Witnesses live and work in the administrative center.
  As Vasily Kalin emphasizes, because the construction was done by their own efforts, including their own concrete factory, and much of the equipment and plumbing was a gift from the Scandanavian firm the construction cost extremely little.
  However, justice requires that we note that evidently no small part was played by the contributions of well to do Jehovah's Witnesses. One of them alone, Michael Jackson, who came from a family of Witnesses, is said to have donated his Russian brothers and sisters one and a half million dollars.
• 

  DATA-DOG

  Poor Harlot of Revelation! 😞😞

  DD
• 

  sparrowdown

  "Pioneer camp" sounds a little bit strange and creepy.