Russia Confiscates 123 Properties From Jehovah's Witnesses in Crackdown

Russian authorities have escalated their decadelong legal offensive against Jehovah's Witnesses, as a court ordered the seizure of 123 properties owned by the religious group, marking one of the largest single asset confiscations since the organization was liquidated. The ruling, disclosed through court filings and reported Tuesday, strips the faith's administrative and worship facilities across multiple regions. It follows a series of decisions that have already eliminated all registered congregations and criminalized the faith's peaceful activity.

Court Ruling and Seized Assets

The confiscated inventory includes former administrative centers, prayer halls, and residential buildings used by followers. Court documents show that the properties were registered to the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, which authorities had placed on a federal list of extremist organizations. The case was brought by the Ministry of Justice, which argued that the assets belonged to a banned entity and therefore should revert to the state. Defense lawyers said the proceedings were largely technical and gave no meaningful opportunity to challenge the underlying extremism designation, which applies to the faith's entire governance structure. Some of the seized premises had housed printing presses, legal offices, and translation teams that served the entire Russian-speaking field. Their loss effectively eliminates the organizational capacity to coordinate humanitarian assistance, correspondence with prisoners, and the production of religious materials.

Origin of the Ban

The confiscations trace back to April 20, 2017, when Russia's Supreme Court declared the international Jehovah's Witnesses leadership and its local organizations extremist groups. The court ordered the liquidation of the Administrative Center and all 395 registered local congregations. The ruling effectively made the religious group illegal, despite its registration in the country for more than two decades. The Supreme Court's decision was based on a 2016 request from the Ministry of Justice, supported by findings from the Federal Security Service. The ministry asserted that the organization's religious literature promoted "extremism" and undermined social stability, claims the Witnesses and international observers described as baseless. The movement had operated openly in Russia since 1991, and by 2016 reported about 175,000 adherents in the country. Its practices, including door-to-door preaching and refusal of military service, had often become a flashpoint, yet the government had repeatedly upheld its right to operate through administrative and judicial channels before the ban.

A Larger Crackdown on Religious Minorities

Russia's action against Jehovah's Witnesses is widely viewed by analysts as part of a broader campaign against religious groups that seek independence from state-approved institutions. Other groups, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and certain Pentecostal congregations, have also faced restrictions, but no other community has endured such a sweeping ban. Since 2017, at least 400 criminal prosecutions have been opened against individual Witnesses for "participating in an extremist organization" and dozens have been jailed under pretrial detention. Homes across Russia have been searched, and literature, electronic devices, and personal belongings have been confiscated in thousands of operations. The latest property seizure extends this pattern by stripping the community of the physical infrastructure needed to maintain any form of organized life. The ban has also forced the complete shutdown of the organization's website domains operated from Russia, and followers have resorted to encrypted communication to avoid surveillance.

Humanitarian and Legal Concerns

Human rights defenders have consistently condemned the suppression. The Council of Europe's human rights commissioner and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe have urged Russian authorities to reverse the ban, and the European Court of Human Rights has issued interim measures concerning detained Witnesses. After the 2017 liquidation, the Moscow-based human rights center Memorial recorded every known search and seizure, and reported systematic violations of due process. Legal analysts say the confiscation of property is especially troubling because it penalizes a religious association without any finding that the properties themselves were used for unlawful acts. "The property was used for prayer and religious study, not for violence", said Natalia Yakunina, a lawyer who has represented several Witnesses. "Seizing it is designed to make the very idea of religious self-organization impossible." The United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief has also expressed alarm, noting that the extremism label is applied to a faith whose doctrine expressly rejects violence and political participation.

International Reactions and Diplomatic Fallout

The confiscation order has drawn swift condemnation from religious freedom organizations abroad. The European Parliament has called on Russia to restore the legal status of Jehovah's Witnesses on multiple occasions, and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has repeatedly listed Russia as a country of particular concern. The Russian government dismisses such criticism as interference in internal affairs, insisting that the ban was imposed by an independent judiciary and that the extremism designation was based on evidence. However, no Russian court has ever presented findings linking the denomination's doctrines or activities to actual violence. Analysts note that Moscow's response to foreign pressure has been to harden its position, making it unlikely that the confiscation decision will be revisited in the near term.

Consequences for the Community

The confiscations will accelerate the dispersal of Witnesses who remain in Russia. Without meeting halls or administrative offices, congregations are forced to gather in private apartments, which is illegal under the extremism ruling. Each such gathering can trigger a criminal case against participants. Many followers have already moved to neighboring countries or internal communities, and church officials estimate that roughly 1,700 Witnesses have been imprisoned since 2017. The organization has called for prisoners of conscience to be released and for the ruling to be overturned. Those remaining in Russia continue to face surveillance and routine summons to investigators. The seizure of 123 properties also ends any hope of recovering the organization's financial base, which once funded translation works, literature distribution, and rental of convention halls. The assets were not simply places of worship; they functioned as community hubs where families received counseling, children were instructed, and volunteers prepared disaster relief kits. Their closure isolates believers and leaves the congregation without any visible public presence.

What Comes Next

The Russian government has not disclosed how the confiscated buildings will be used. In previous projects, authorities transferred seized worship facilities to museums, state agencies, or private companies, or left them to decay. The Witnesses' appeal against the liquidation ruling was rejected by the Supreme Court's appeal chamber in July 2017, and further appeals to the European Court of Human Rights are still pending. The court in Strasbourg has already held that the earlier property judgments violated religious freedom, but the Russian judiciary has shown no indication of aligning itself with those determinations. Observers say the confiscation order is meant to make the liquidation irreversible and to serve as a warning to other faiths. Until the legal and political climate changes, Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia will remain a community with religious commitments but without legal standing, a home, or even a fixed place to pray.