19 June 2025

RUSSIA: "Missionary activity" prosecutions January 2024 to April 2025 - list

The 124 known prosecutions under Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 4 ("Russians conducting missionary activity") and Part 5 ("Foreigners conducting missionary activity") between January 2024 and April 2025 are listed. First-instance courts (in one case police) convicted 107 defendants and acquitted three. They closed or returned a further 12 cases to police or prosecutors. Two cases which reached court after the permitted three-month period were dismissed. All but six of those convicted received fines. Most appeals were unsuccessful. Of 35 foreigners charged, 18 were ordered expelled from Russia.

17 June 2025

RUSSIA: Foreigners face summary expulsion for illegal "missionary activity"

On 5 February, amendments to the Administrative Code entered force allowing police - without having to go to court - to fine and expel from Russia foreign citizens who conduct "illegal missionary activity". Forum 18 has so far found one such case. Among earlier cases, in October 2024, 85-year-old Catholic priest Władysław Kloc lost his appeal against a fine and expulsion for leading worship in his parish. Most known prosecutions of foreign citizens involve Muslims who appear to be Central Asian migrant workers.

16 June 2025

RUSSIA: Prosecutions for unlawful "missionary activity" – 2024 to 2025

At least 90 people in 2024 and 34 in January-April 2025 were prosecuted for unlawful "missionary activity". Fines are typically several weeks' average wages, but foreigners can be deported. A Kurganinsk Magistrate's Court fined six Baptists – including Pastor Aleksandr Chmykh - for leading worship meetings. A Stavropol Muslim teacher was fined for leading prayers and Koranic studies for girls. Police and prosecutors did not respond on why they had brought charges to punish individuals who had conducted worship services in places of worship, prayer rooms, or residential premises.

11 June 2025

OCCUPIED UKRAINE: "Bishop says no" on Ukrainian Orthodox entities

The Russian-controlled Justice Department requested an "expert conclusion" on a Brotherhood of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Russian-occupied Luhansk from Russia's Justice Ministry. Its Expert Council said the Brotherhood provided "deliberately false information that it operates as part of the Luhansk diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, that is, a structure that does not in reality exist". It cited Moscow Patriarchate Metropolitan Pantaleimon that "Luhansk Diocese does not support the creation on its canonical territory of Orthodox parishes, brotherhoods and other religious organisations" not part of the Russian Orthodox Church.

10 June 2025

OCCUPIED UKRAINE: Raids, registration pressure, places of worship deemed "ownerless"

A prosecutor and police in Russian-occupied Luhansk Region raided Krasnodon's Council of Churches Baptist congregation's Pentecost worship meeting on 8 June. "The main issue is the registration of the church!" Pastor Vladimir Rytikov noted. Asked if she could explain why Krasnodon Police raided the Church, the duty officer said only: "We can't." Occupation authorities threaten other Baptist congregations that meet without seeking permission. The Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Region administration lists a Greek Catholic Church – whose priest was expelled in 2022 – and a Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall as "ownerless".

4 June 2025

OCCUPIED UKRAINE: "Missionary" fines, "so-called religious services"

A court in the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk fined Pastor Vladimir Rudomyotkin several days' average local wage on 23 May for alleged missionary activity. His Council of Churches Baptist congregation meets without seeking permission from officials. Two days earlier, another Donetsk court punished St Joseph Roman Catholic parish for allegedly failing to give its official full name "within the framework of missionary activity". An Enerhodar court fined an individual 3 weeks' average local wage for organising a community "where so-called religious services were held on Sundays".

30 May 2025

KYRGYZSTAN: Court bans True and Free Adventist Church as "extremist"

Only four people were apparently present - Judge Ayke Musayeva, her secretary, the prosecutor who brought the suit and an NSC secret police officer – when Alamudun District Court banned the True and Free Adventist Church as "extremist" on 19 March. Church members found out two days later, when the ban was already in force. Their lawyer is preparing a Supreme Court challenge. The ban was based on NSC-commissioned "expert analyses" of books seized in raids which did not meet "the basic standards of scientific analysis", says religious studies scholar Indira Aslanova.

22 May 2025

KYRGYZSTAN: Up to 7 years' imprisonment for True and Free Adventist Pastor?

65-year-old True and Free Reform Adventist Pastor Pavel Shreider faces a five to seven year jail term if a Bishkek court convicts him of incitement, charges he rejects. The trial resumes on 29 May. The NSC secret police arrested him in November 2024. Officers tortured him during interrogation, but his complaint to the National Centre for the Prevention of Torture was closed. Officers tortured with a stun gun church member Igor Tsoy to pressure him to implicate Pastor Shreider. He refused. At NSC behest, a court declared the Church "extremist".