The court arrested Andrei Kayl, Maxim Khotulev, Alexander Lysenko, Pavel Khrulev, Alexey Gudilin and Semyon Tokmakov. On December 24, 2020, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow remanded previously detained Andrei Kayl, Maxim Khotulev, Alexander Lysenko, Pavel Khrulev, and Alexey Gudilin into custody until February 2020. Semyon Tokmakov was arrested the day before, on December 23. Later, Maxim Aristarkhov , who was already serving his sentence, was charged in the same case.

We will recover a video of the report of the director of the SOVA information and analytical center Alexander Verkhovsky, with whom he spoke at the session “Problems of National Security and the Observance of the Right of Conscience” of the All-Russian Forum “Religion” last 17, 2020. Right. State". Sources Anti -extremist policy and its influence on the realization of freedom of conscience // Slavic Legal Center - YouTube.com. 2020. December 21.

Without waiting for the adoption of the bill, which provides for the recertification of clergy who have received a religious education abroad, officials of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug demanded from religious organizations information about such clergy.

The court granted the prosecutor's motion to return the case to the prosecutor's office. On December 24, 2020, it became known that in the Primorsky Territory, the Ninth Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction satisfied the prosecutor’s proposal to return the case of seven followers of the teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses to the prosecutor’s office and returned the case to the court of first instance for consideration on the merits. Valentin Osadchuk (b. 1976).

The proposed amendments concern the liability of NGOs, public associations and citizens "acting as foreign agents" for failing to disclose their status. On December 24, 2020, the State Duma adopted in the first reading a draft amendment to the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO) "in terms of clarifying liability for violating the procedure for the activities of persons performing the functions of a foreign agent." Changes are proposed to be made to Art.

Thisarticle by Olga Sibireva was published in Talk About: Law and Religion. Blog of the International Center for Law and ReligionStudies. Olga Sibireva is the head ofthe Religion in Secular Society project at the Moscow-based SOVA Center forInformation and Analysis In Russia, religious discrimination is often directed at new religiousmovements and Protestant organizations, and this trend has only intensifiedover the years.

December 24, 2020 Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill, speaking at a diocesan meeting, said that due to the anti-epidemic restrictions imposed by the authorities, the number parishioners in Orthodox churches has been greatly reduced.

Yevgeny Golik is charged under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code. On December 24, 2020, it became known that in the Jewish Autonomous Region, during a debate in the Birobidzhan District Court, the prosecutor demanded that Yevgeny Golik, a follower of the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses, be sentenced to four years in prison in a penal colony. He is charged under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (participation in the activities of an extremist organization).

The Ekaterinburg diocese went to court, demanding recognition of its right to the Sredneuralsky monastery, seized by supporters of the former schema-abbot Sergius (Romanov). On December 22, the inhabitants of the monastery did not allow bailiffs into the monastery. At the end of December 2020, it became known that the Ekaterinburg diocese applied to the Arbitration Court of the Sverdlovsk Region with a claim to recognize the ownership of the Sredneuralsky Convent.

Two believers became defendants in the case under Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code. On December 24, 2020, it became known that in Kirsanov, Tambov Region, a criminal case was initiated against two followers of the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses - 27-year-old Anton Kuzhelkov and 56-year-old Nikolai Prokhorov - under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of the activities of an extremist organization).

Tambov diocese claims to building in the center of Tambov, historically not associated with the Russian Orthodox Church. City officials are considering a transfer. December 23, 2020 it became known that the mayor's office of Tambov is considering the transfer of a non-residential property to the Tambov diocese buildings on Kronshtadtskaya street, 83A. The area of ​​the building together with the plot is 650 sq. m.