One of these inspections took place in the city of Taganrog, located on the northeast shore of the Sea of Azov. The inspection formed the basis for nearly all other charges of extremism launched against Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia. By October 2007, the Rostov Regional Prosecutor’s Office concluded its investigation and issued a warning against the Local Religious Organization (LRO) of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Taganrog and the next year filed a claim to liquidate the LRO. However, the Prosecutor’s Office lacked incriminating evidence to support its claim and asked the Rostov Regional Court to order an “expert study” to examine the religious literature of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The court not only commissioned the “expert study,” despite the objection of the Witnesses, but also refused their requests to introduce independent research. The court’s experts unanimously concluded in their report that the Witnesses’ religious literature did not incite hostile actions. Nonetheless, the court focused on the experts’ opinions that theological discussion in the Witnesses’ literature had “the potential to undermine respect” for other religions.

By stretching the definition of “extremism,” on September 11, 2009, the Rostov Regional Court ruled to declare 34 Witness publications “extremist,” and these were eventually placed on the Federal List of Extremist Materials (FLEM). The court also declared the Taganrog LRO “extremist” and ordered federal authorities to liquidate it, ban its activity, place its name on a list of extremist organizations, confiscate its religious literature, and turn over its property to the Russian Federation. On December 8, 2009, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld the decision, making it final.

By the start of 2016, similar court actions had declared 88 religious publications “extremist” and liquidated three LROs. Another 18 LROs were under investigation. Additionally, federal authorities banned and blocked jw.org, the official website of Jehovah’s Witnesses, denied the import of all their religious literature, and subjected the Bible to scrutiny as “extremist” literature.