An independent, bipartisan advisory body has reiterated its call for the U.S. State Department to add Russia to its register of the world’s “worst violators” of religious freedom, a blacklist that already includes Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and six other countries.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), created by Congress to make recommendations about global religious freedom, proposes in its latest annual report that Russia, India, Syria, and Vietnam be put on the “countries of particular concern” list, a category reserved for those that carry out “systematic, ongoing, and egregious” violations of religious freedoms.

The blacklisting paves the way for sanctions if the countries included do not improve their records.

The USCIRF report says that “religious freedom conditions in Russia deteriorated” last year, with the government targeting religious minorities deemed to be “nontraditional” with fines, detentions, and criminal charges.

For decades, the have been viewed with suspicion in Russia, where the dominant Orthodox Church is championed by President Vladimir Putin.

In 2017, Russia outlawed Jehovah’s Witnesses and labelled the group “extremist,” a designation the State Department has called “wrongful”.

Russia’s anti-extremism law was also used to “persecute religious minorities, particularly Muslims,” the report added.