Prosecutors in three cities have taken actions targeting Jehovah's Witnesses within a month of each other in Asbest, Murmansk and Taganrog, raising the possibility that their efforts are part of a coordinated campaign. As UCSJ already reported, prosecutors in Asbest (Sverdlovsk region) charged local Jehovah's Witnesses with inciting religious hatred and have asked a court to brand their publications extremist materials, according to a June 24, 2008 report by the Interfax news agency. Investigators determined that the publications present a negative image of the dominant Russian Orthodox Church.

Meanwhile in Taganrog, on July 10 local prosecutors began a court case aimed at banning the Jehovah's Witnesses there, using anti-extremism laws as the basis for their claim, according to a July 18, 2008 report by the Sova Information-Analytical Center. Last year, the local prosecutor's office issued two warnings to the leader of the Taganrog Jehovah's Witnesses congregation for "extremism" after consulting an "expert" who claimed that Jehovah's Witnesses incite religious hatred in their publications.

On July 18, 2008 the RIA-Novosti news agency reported that prosecutors in Murmansk issued a warning to the owners of a stadium that rented their premises to Jehovah's Witnesses for a religious event. Prosecutors argued that stadiums in Russia are only meant for sports.

Legal cases against Jehovah's Witnesses have become more frequent in Russia after a Moscow district court outlawed them on spurious charges in 2004, but by openly abusing anti-incitement and anti-extremism laws, prosecutors have opened a new legal front against them.

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