Kazakhstan cracks down on places of worship

ASTANA, Kazakhstan — Pastor Andrei Panafidin was fined 100 times the minimum monthly wage March 4 for leading unregistered religious worship in Taraz, the seventh time he has been fined for this “offense,” local Baptists said. He is the first Council of Churches Baptist in Kazakhstan known to have been fined since June 2010.

“It’s a violation if they don’t register — all religious communities must be registered,” said an officer of Jambyl Regional Directorate for the Struggle with Organized Crime, which took part in raids on the congregation. In Shymkent, a judge has banned the local New Life Pentecostal Church from holding worship in the house where the congregation is registered. And a local administration in Almaty has — with National Security Committee secret police and Interior Ministry intervention — banned a university from renting its facilities to religious communities.