On September 3, 2024, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania commenced civil proceedings in the United States District Court against The Russian Federation, the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, and the Federal State Budgetary Institution over the seizure of real estate property in Russia, namely the headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
According to the filings, Watch Tower Society alleges:
[EXTRACT FROM COMPLAINT]
1. This action arises out of, and seeks a remedy for, (1) Russia’s unlawful expropriation of Watch Tower’s property, as well as (2) the direct harms Russia has caused Watch Tower to suffer in the United States through its commercial activities since that expropriation. The facts giving rise to this case, however, are part of a broader, documented, and widely condemned campaign of discrimination and persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses by the Russian Federation. Currently there are 137 Jehovah’s Witnesses (men and women, ages 27-73) incarcerated in Russia for terms spanning two months to eight years due to their religious activity.
2. “Jehovah’s Witnesses have been present in Russia since 1891. They were banned after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 and criminally prosecuted for practising their faith in the USSR.”
3. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, and after nearly a century of persecution, Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia were able to openly practice their faith. Subsequently, Watch Tower (a charitable organization) established a public presence in Russia by, among other things, obtaining title to real property in St. Petersburg, Russia, for the purpose of facilitating the peaceful and lawful religious activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
4. Tragically, the ability of Jehovah’s Witnesses to freely and openly worship in Russia was cut short. Since at least 2007, the Russian Federation has undertaken a coordinated, deliberate, and sustained campaign of disinformation, discrimination, and persecution of Watch Tower and Jehovah’s Witnesses. This attack campaign culminated in Russia’s illegal seizure of Watch Tower’s property and its ongoing occupation by the Ministry of Health and Almazov.
5. As discussed herein, given Russia’s brazen and illegal conduct, and the direct effects of that illegal activity in the United States, this Court has both subject matter and personal jurisdiction over the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Health, and Almazov pursuant to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1330, 1602 et seq. (“FSIA”). To remedy the harms suffered, Watch Tower respectfully requests that it be awarded compensatory damages from Defendants and that punitive damages be awarded against Almazov for its outrageous, intentional, and unlawful conduct.
C. The Bethel Facility in Russia
25. In the early 1990’s, with Watch Tower’s assistance, the Administrative Centre purchased and renovated a complex of buildings in St. Petersburg, Russia. This “Bethel Facility”—known to Jehovah’s Witnesses as “Bethel” (from the Hebrew word meaning “House of God”)—is located at the following address: 197739 St. Petersburg, pos. Solnechnoye, ul. Srednyaya, d. 6.
26. Until 2017, when the Russian Federation stole the Bethel Facility, this property served as a place of worship and the national headquarters for Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia. At all relevant times, the Bethel Facility was used by Jehovah’s Witnesses to support the practice of their faith. It was staffed by approximately 300 full-time ministers of Jehovah’s Witnesses, all members of a religious order, who lived and worked at that facility as part of their religious calling.
27. Throughout the 1990s, the Administrative Centre owned and maintained the Bethel Facility. Eventually, though, the Administrative Centre became interested in transferring ownership of the Bethel Facility to Watch Tower, whose global mission is to support the worship of Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide.
28. In connection with this property transfer, Watch Tower registered as a foreign legal entity with the Russian Federation’s State Revenue Inspectorate in June 2000. See Exhibit B. As a registered foreign legal entity, Watch Tower was required to pay land and property taxes in Russia, unlike the Administrative Centre, a Russian religious entity, that was tax exempt.
29. On March 1, 2000, the Administrative Centre executed a Gift Contract that transferred to Watch Tower ownership and title of the real property, including ten buildings, then comprising the Bethel Facility.
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35. On September 17, 2010, the Administrative Centre executed a second Gift Contract that transferred to Watch Tower ownership and title of additional buildings and plots of land, all of which were subsequently subsumed within Watch Tower’s Bethel Facility.
36. On July 28, 2011, Watch Tower and the Administrative Centre executed a contract permitting the Administrative Centre to continue using the additional buildings and land that had been transferred to Watch Tower and added to the Bethel Facility.
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98. The Bethel Facility, which the Russian Federation stole from Watch Tower in violation of international law, is now being used by the Russian Federation to generate income that in turn, as part of its general revenues, is being exchanged for property now present in the United States in connection with commercial activity carried on in the United States by the Russian Federation. The property exchanged for the property that the Russian Federation stole from Watch Tower is present in the United States in connection with commercial activities carried on in the United States by the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Health
99. The Russian Federation stole the Bethel Facility from Watch Tower.
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110. Therefore, Russia’s taking of the Bethel Facility constituted an unlawful expropriation by a state against a non-citizen without just compensation, thus violating international law.
111. Accordingly, Defendants are liable to Plaintiff for the expropriation of the Bethel Facility.
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132. Each Defendant had actual knowledge and/or was generally aware of the wrongful conduct of the other Defendants, and was generally aware of the role that the other Defendants and it were playing in their unlawful conduct toward Watch Tower.
133. As a result of the foregoing, in the alternative to its other claims, Plaintiff asserts that it is entitled to a substantial award of damages, in an amount to be proved at trial.
Civil Complaint Documents
Complaint – Watch Tower v Russia (2024) – pdf
Cover Sheet for Complaint – Watch Tower v Russia (2024) – pdf
Exhibit 1 – Watch Tower v Russia (2024) – pdf
Exhibits A through S – Watch Tower v Russia (2024) – pdf
Certificate of Disclosure – Watch Tower v Russia (2024) – pdf
Summons to Russia – Watch Tower v Russia (2024) – pdf
ZIP FILE – Watch Tower v Russia (2024) – 47mb
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