ABSTRACT
Maria Kravchenko is a researcher at the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis, a Russian-based nonprofit organization in Moscow founded in 2002. After the end of the Soviet rule in 1991 the Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW) in Russia was officially registered. JW were rehabilitated and deemed victims of unjustified repression against believers after Boris Yeltsin’s decree in 1996. Russian legislation on extremist groups and religious associations provides the state with a set of tools to interfere in the religious realm. Scientologists in particular have been accused of violating registration rules, engaging in illegal entrepreneurship, collecting personal data, and using surveillance devices illegally. A number of Ron Hubbard’s works have been banned as extremist, exposing Hubbard’s adherents to prosecution for their distribution. In Saint Petersburg a group of Scientologists faces criminal charges, including incitement to hatred. There is a chance that if they are found guilty, their conviction may lead to the banning of Scientology centers as extremist organizations.
