; Whereas the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has included on its annual Tier Two list or Watch List countries in which the government has engaged in or tolerated serious violations of religious freedom, Azerbaijan from 2013 to 2018, Kazakhstan from 2013 to 2018, Turkey from 2009 to 2011 and 2014 to 2018, Russia from 2009 to 2016, Belarus from 2004 to 2012, Tajikistan from 2009 to 2011, Uzbekistan from 2003 to 2004, and Georgia in 2004; Whereas, on July 17, 2017, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld a ban against Jehovah’s Witnesses as an extremist group, enforcing extremism laws that violate religious freedom, including July 7, 2016, amendments to the prohibitive 1997 Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations that further restrict missionary activities of Russians and foreigners in Russia, restrict or ban online and printed religious materials, impose fines, confiscate assets and property, prohibit public and private religious assembly and expression, criminalize and ban religious activities and groups as extremist without legally defining extremism to include the threat or use of violence, and put religious minorities such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims, Protestant Christians, and Mormons, especially at risk of severe and particularly severe violations of religious freedom