Russia keeps using anti-extremism law to prosecute peaceful worshippers and non-traditional groups

Religious freedom needs to move forward in the world. Unfortunately, 80 percent of the world’s population lives in a country where there’s some type of religious freedom restrictions, in some cases very significant

Russia has been criticized for banning Jehovah's Witnesses and abusing its anti-extremism law to prosecute peaceful worshippers and nontraditional groups including Scientologists.

Since the passing of Russia's 2016 law criminalizing missionary activity, NGOs have reported 156 cases of religious groups being targeted that also include Christian groups from various denominations, according to U.S. Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback.