In the latest instance of government action against Jehovah's Witnesses and other minority Christians in Russia, officials in Ufa (Republic of Bashkortostan) have banned a planned Jehovah's Witnesses congress, according to a September 9, 2008 report by the Interfax news agency. Around 1300 Jehovah's Witnesses planned to hold a mass prayer service in a rented building until the local prosecutor's office banned it.

At the same time in Dzherzhinsk (Nizhny Novgorod region), the city government is "searching for a technicality" to block the construction of a Jehovah's Witnesses prayer hall on an empty, burned out lot, according to a September 9, 2008 article in the national daily "Kommersant." Around two dozen people gathered in an officially approved protest action outside the construction site calling for the project to be halted. An official from the city government admitted that the city is collaborating with the Russian Orthodox Church in opposing the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses, who have been trying to build their prayer hall since 2004 but have been delayed by official actions. In 2006, the city organized a public meeting of residents to discuss the construction project, during which a Russian Orthodox priest and other speakers warned about the danger posed by "sects." The meeting ended in a resolution condemning the project.

The "Kommersant" article quoted a legal expert saying that the construction project is legal under the constitution's protection of freedom of religion. The article ended with a one paragraph "explainer" that referred to Jehovah's Witnesses as "one of the oldest totalitarian religious organizations." The fact that "Kommersant"--one of Russia's most professional newspapers--used that sort of language indicates the level of animosity towards Jehovah's Witnesses and some other minority Christians prevelant in the country.

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