President Putin says Jehovah's Witnesses are not terrorists?

[Bruceq]

11 minutes ago, Tortuga said:

You talking to me?

No the world. 

[jwhess]

46 minutes ago, Tortuga said:

You talking to me?

You the man...Inquiring minds want to know...(and all those other cliches)...😎

[cricket246]

Hmmm.... First Korea frees some of the brothers and now Vladimir seems confused... Could it be Jehovah is speeding things up - but before He puts the thought into the minds of the government officials to turn on false religion, could he direct them to free his people so he can gather them into safe spots during the great tribulation?.... interesting indeed...

[normadenardo]

3 hours ago, cricket246 said:

Hmmm.... First Korea frees some of the brothers and now Vladimir seems confused... Could it be Jehovah is speeding things up - but before He puts the thought into the minds of the government officials to turn on false religion, could he direct them to free his people so he can gather them into safe spots during the great tribulation?.... interesting indeed...

Love this thought. 

[Allabord4Jah]

Very interesting subject in this forum.  Let's go with "Lets Wait and See" just as someone in here said.  It maybe valid and then it might not be valid.  Fake news out there coming out of Russia too, but we'll sit in here and wait. 

[Guri]

14 hours ago, Loopy said:

Yes, I was gonna post....”well do something about it! You’ve got the authority!!!!! 

 

 

Exactly! He has two faces. How can he be saying that and keep JW’s in prisons?! 

 

In that kind of situations the inactivity is the worse than itself the criminal activity. 

[Nirex]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/putin-decries-prosecution-of-jehovahs-witnesses-in-russia/2018/12/18/449608fe-029f-11e9-958c-0a601226ff6b_story.html?utm_term=.1cf5eeae36c4

[Naturale]

12 hours ago, Bek said:

Very good analysis, Susanna. You are well-informed about Russian politics. 

[TrueTomHarley]

 

He said he does not understand why they have been persecuted, adding that they are Christians, too. It shows he won’t be bullied by those telling him otherwise. Distracted by other matters, this may be like the squeaky hinge driving him nuts with time that he is now going to attend to. It is a very good thing.

 

Of course he has known about it, but he has a country to run. This is huge for us. It cannot have been for him. Maybe he is like Ahaseurus & enemies get him to pass a law that he barely pays attention to until Esther exposes them for what they are.

 

’What is to be done, o Haman, to the man in whose heart the king has taken delight?’

 

Always we should ‘fear the king‘ and treat him with respect. No potshots ought be made. We thus glorify our God, who can turn the king’s heart like a stream of water, waiting upon him.

 

Everyone hopes that perhaps their letter did the trick. So do I. But it was probably one from a child:

 

https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2017/04/i-apologize-to-mr-putin.html

 

[Bluebell]

12 hours ago, cricket246 said:

Hmmm.... First Korea frees some of the brothers and now Vladimir seems confused... Could it be Jehovah is speeding things up - but before He puts the thought into the minds of the government officials to turn on false religion, could he direct them to free his people so he can gather them into safe spots during the great tribulation?.... interesting indeed...

Maybe Jehovah made it possible that not only our Brother's

in South Korea can now join their families to strengthen them

before the start of the gr. T. ...maybe also our Brother's in Russia

now get a short respite to build up their faith......

[Bruceq]

54 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

 

He said he does not understand why they have been persecuted, adding that they are Christians, too. It shows he won’t be bullied by those telling him otherwise. Distracted by other matters, this may be like the squeaky hinge driving him nuts with time that he is now going to attend to. It is a very good thing.

 

Of course he has known about it, but he has a country to run. This is huge for us. It cannot have been for him. Maybe he is like Ahaseurus & enemies get him to pass a law that he barely pays attention to until Esther exposes them for what they are.

 

’What is to be done, o Haman, to the man in whose heart the king has taken delight?’

 

 

 

I was thinking the same thing yesterday. King Ahasuerus = Putin, Haman = Russian Orthodox Church. This should prove interesting to watch. Remember when we were banned on April, 20 2017 and many were making a comparison to the events in the book of Esther?

[SUNRAY]

Wow! Thank you everyone! What a stimulating discussion to wake up to today! I just finished making my coffee, but I may not need it now! Well........maybe!

[Bruceq]

After service today I'm going to read the book of Esther then watch the video "EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED" by brother Jackson.

 

Even if nothing else comes from this what has happened since yesterday is a great witness for Jehovah and is completely "UNEXPECTED' to have Putin even say these things.

Edited December 18, 2018 by Bruceq

[Bluebell]

https://www.rferl.org/amp/kremlin-to-look-into-complaints-jehovah-s-witnesses-being-persecuted/29662787.html?__twitter_impression=true

 

The Kremlin says it will look into charges that Jehovah's Witnesses are being subjected to persecution in Russia.

Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, said in Moscow on December 18 that "it is necessary to look into each individual case."

 

---------------------------------

what is going on?........is Jehovah manoeuvring that all his people will be freed....and then he is putting it in their heart to destroy B.t.G????

[Tortuga]

16 minutes ago, Bluebell said:

what is going on?

Putin is most likely just making some politically correct comments to get the situation away from the light of public opinion. I suspect that it's just words and nothing will change...

[SUNRAY]

Could the separating of the church in Ukraine from the Russian Orthodox Church possibly be a factor? That is a serious loss of revenue and more. We just had the special convention in Ukraine with a total attendance of 125,000 including streamed locations...pretty obvious that Ukraine is not anti-JW like Russia. And what about Russian Orthodox church members who have expressed themselves favorably in our behalf? Yes..expect the unexpected!😌https://www.npr.org/2018/12/16/677244789/ukraine-creates-unified-orthodox-church-independent-from-russia

[Miss Bea]

There has to be hidden motives behind this. Sounds calculating to me. I find it hard to believe with them taking our headquarters and treating our brothers and sister as they have, that he did not have prior knowledge. 

We are so close to the end, I’m wondering if Jehovah has anything to do with it. This is a huge country. The brothers and sisters have had to go underground. When Babylon is destroyed, whose left? In a religious sense? Yes, even if the ban is destroyed lifted, our brothers and sisters can come up for fresh air. But, just maybe they may get that, before Babylon is destroyed. 

We just need to trust Jehovah has control of this. I’m sure His blessings have shown up to remind our dear brothers and sisters in Russia  how precious they are to him. Each and every one of them...

[Friends just call me Ross]

What if Putin discovered there is an entire warehouse filled with letters awaiting his attention?

Wouldn't that be cool?

 

 

Reality is, more than likely, he lit the match that destroyed them.

 

❤️

[Ahuvah]

21 hours ago, Bek said:

The BBC Russian has published a report with more details on the meeting of the Russian human rights council that was held on 11 December.

 

I have translated some key parts of it, but did not translate Putin's words because they are already in the above reports. He basically says that considering JWs as extremists and even terrorists is complete nonsense. He adds that he would look into the issue and ask the chairman of the Russian Supreme Court to try to analyse the issue. 

 

Here is my quick translation of those parts: 

 

A political scientist, Yekaterina Shulman, cited statistics on organisations that have been found to be extremist and terrorist: "There are 489 of them and 404 are of Jehovah's Witnesses," Shulman said. There are maybe many complaints against Jehovah's Witnesses - they do not do blood transfusions, do not send kids to the hospital, - but they certainly do not incite violence and do not carry it out". 

 

"We have noted the president's reaction with surprise. If he knows about the whole situation, then probably his reaction could change something. We hope that he will give instructions to have the matter examined and something may happen. Though, knowing the realities of our country, there is not much optimism," the press secretary of JWs in Russia, Yaroslav Sivulski,  told the BBC.

 

"It is difficult to describe the statement as support, but the fact itself that he expressed his viewpoint could be a sign that accusations against JWs of terrorism and extremism are baseless," he said. 

 

Sivulski recalled that it was not the first time that Putin was asked about JWs, but until this, he had not expressed his attitude. Thus, in May 2017, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she had raised the issue of JW rights with Putin . 

 

Sivulski also said that JWs had written many letters to President Putin and his administration before the Supreme Court banned the organisation in April 2017. At the time, he said, we could not get "even a formal response".

 

"It is difficult to say what is actually happening, but we do have a modest hope that those who are already in custody could be freed because they have not committed crimes, but simply were reading the Bible. This is the first thing that the law-enforcement bodies should do," Sivulski suggested. 

 

The original article in Russian: https://www.bbc.com/russian/news-46598425

 

Yes, what I had forgotten was all our letters ... how could he NOT know our stance ... he's 'acting' surprised and innocent.

18 hours ago, Bruceq said:

No the world. 

He used to hold up the world you know ... 

[Leslie.m]

http://time.com/5482484/vladimir-putin-jehovahs-witnesses-persecution-russia/

[Bek]

Here is a theory why Putin has suddenly had a change of heart about our brothers in Russia. When he knows that something is not going to be in his favour, he usually tries to preempt it by saying things that put him in a better position in the eyes of the international community.

 

For example, as we know, the European Court of Human Rights is now considering the Russian ban on JWs and compensation for their confiscated properties. Our brothers want about 80m euros from Russia for the damages caused. In the past, the European Court has ruled in our favour many times and the likelihood that it will do so again this time is also very high in view of how outrageously brothers have been treated. So Putin knows this and to save face he will try to come out of this as someone who cares about human rights and international law. It is possible that he will order the release of our brothers from custody, the return of their properties and even the reinstatement of their legal status well before the European Court's damning verdict. 

Edited December 18, 2018 by Bek

[BibleSteve]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I am sure previously he has said Russia doesn't respect the European high court and that Russias own high court is better? and therefore they don't care what the European court says.

[Bruceq]

Further fall-out from Putin's remarks about Jehovah's Witnesses

KREMLIN WILL EXAMINE EACH SPECIFIC INSTANCE OF CRIMINAL PROSECUTION OF REPRESENTATIVES OF RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES

Interfax-Religiia, 18 December 2018

 

Each specific instance of bringing representatives of religious communities to accountability for extremism and terrorism will be examined, but we are not talking about a conceptual change in legislation, the Russian president's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, declared.

 

"Here it is necessary to examine each specific case. The topic was brought up and consequently specific incidents will be reviewed. Here it is impossible to resolve this issue conceptually because there exist diverse cases, diverse phenomena, which speak both 'for' and 'against," D. Peskov told journalists.

 

This is the way he responded to a question whether it is planned to introduce changes into legislation in connection with the fact that representatives of religious organizations, including Jehovah's Witnesses (an organization banned in the RF—IF), are being brought to criminal accountability for terrorism and extremism.

 

This topic was raised at a session of the presidential Council on Human Rights on 11 December.

 

"We must treat representatives of all religions identically, this is the truth, but we also must still take into consideration the country and society in which we live. It is true this does not at all mean that we should categorize representatives of religious communities as somehow destructive, much less terrorist organizations," Vladimir Putin said during the closed-door portion of the session of the presidential Council on Human Rights, which was held on 11 December.

 

This is the way he reacted to the words of a member of the Council on Human Rights, Ekaterina Shulman, to the effect that in the list of organizations regarding which there is information about their adherence to extremism and terrorism, the overwhelming majority belong to the Jehovah's Witnesses.

 

"Of course, this is complete nonsense and it is necessary to deal attentively with this; here I agree with you," the head of state said in connection with this. We certainly can, and we even must at such a time be much more liberal toward representatives of various religious sects, but we must not forget that our society does not consist exclusively of religious sects." the president noted in his response.

 

D. Peskov noted that "this topic will be considered further." (tr. by PDS, posted 18 December 2018)

[Tortuga]

4 hours ago, Stormswift said:

 

He used to hold up the world you know ... 

I thought a giant turtle did that...

[cricket246]

https://www.newsweek.com/jehovah-witness-russia-kremlin-religion-freedom-1262985

 

World scene events are getting interesting...hmm..