Russia confiscates Jehovah's Witnesses properties

On July 31, 2026, a court in Moscow confiscated 123 real estate assets belonging to the Jehovah s Witnesses and transferred them to the Russian state, according to Moscow's court service. The properties, previously registered under the Swedish branch of Jehovah s Witnesses, included 63 residential and commercial properties totaling over 11,000 square meters and 60 plots of land covering 5.6 hectares across Russia. This action follows the 2017 Russian court ban of Jehovah s Witnesses as an 'extremist organisation,' a ruling that the International — European Court of Human Rights deemed unlawful in 2022. Many Jehovah s Witnesses in Russia have been jailed on extremism charges since the ban.