A new Russian legal amendment bans some sacred texts - "the Bible, the Koran, the Tanakh and the Kanjur, their contents, and quotations from them" - from being banned as "extremist". But about 4,000 Jehovah's Witness Bibles are among millions of their publications still held up at Russian customs as they may contain "extremism"....
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Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Jehovah's Witnesses In Russia Sue Over Blocking of Bible Imports
Interfax yesterday reported on a lawsuit filed in a Russian court by the Administrative Center for Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia against customs authorities in the town of Vyborg. According to the lawsuit filed in the St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region Arbitration Court, Customs has refused to allow into the country a shipment of Bibles from German Jehovah's Witnesses because they were not accompanied by documents certifying compliance with the Federal Law on Counteracting Extremist Activity. The shipment included the Synodal edition of the Bible (translated by the Russian Orthodox Church) and the Study Bible published by the Russian Bible Society. According to a Nov. 30, 2015 report from Forum 18: