A Catholic priest in Crimea has been hit with a heavy fine because his parish did not provide its full legal name on posted material: an offense against the religious regulations imposed by Russia in the occupied region.
The fine—the equivalent of a month’s average wage in the region—was the latest in a series of cases brought against religious institutions in Crimea in Russian magistrate’s courts. Russian regulations require all religious groups to put their full legal names on any material that is printed, distributed, or posted online, as part of the occupation government’s regulation of “missionary activity.”