A Moscow Buddhist is due to stand trial a second time on charges of distributing "false information" about the Russian Armed Forces, after an appeal court overturned his conviction and 8-year prison sentence. At his original trial, Ilya Vasilyev had asked for a public defender. The judge's refusal to allow this constituted a violation of his right to a defence, Moscow City Court found on 22 October.

Prosecutors accused Vasilyev, director of the Moscow Zen Centre, of "Public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for reasons of political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred or enmity, or for reasons of hatred or enmity against any social group" (Criminal Code Article 207.3, Part 2 Paragraph d) for an English-language Facebook post about a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Kherson in 2022. The post was made "solely out of religious conviction", his lawyer told Forum 18 earlier (see below).

At present, Vasilyev – who is now 52 - is still in detention at Moscow's Matrosskaya Tishina Investigation Prison (see below).

After his initial conviction, the court press secretary refused to explain to Forum 18 why the Judge considered that such a long custodial term was necessary, and in what way Vasilyev could be considered dangerous (see below).

On 25 November, 63-year-old Protestant pastor Nikolay Romanyuk appealed unsuccessfully at Moscow Regional Court against his criminal conviction for opposing Russia's war in Ukraine on religious grounds. He is now awaiting transfer to a prison colony to begin serving his 4-year sentence (see below).

Prosecutors too challenged the original verdict seeking a harsher verdict. Moscow Regional Prosecutor's Office did not respond to Forum 18's question as to why prosecutors were challenging the lower court's verdict (see below).

Balashikha City Court had found Pastor Romanyuk guilty on 3 September under Criminal Code Article 280.4 ("Public calls to implement activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation, or to obstruct the exercise by government bodies and their officials of their powers to ensure the security of the Russian Federation") for preaching that church members should not fight in Ukraine (see below).

The Investigative Committee opened a case for "Public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed Forces" against Orthodox journalist Kseniya Luchenko. Investigators launched the case for a Telegram post in which she condemned a Russian missile strike on a Kyiv children's hospital in July 2024, and contrasted this with the Russian state and Moscow Patriarchate's promotion of so-called "traditional values".

Although Luchenko left Russia in 2022, a Moscow court issued a detention order for her in absentia on 24 November. Investigators had already had her placed on the Interior Ministry's Federal Wanted List, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) "List of Terrorists and Extremists", and the Justice Ministry's register of "foreign agents". If she returns to Russia, she will be immediately arrested.

Criminal, administrative convictions for opposing war on religious grounds

Since February 2022, courts have sentenced four people to imprisonment and fined three on criminal charges for opposing Russia's war against Ukraine on religious grounds. Investigators have also opened four criminal cases against people who have left Russia (including Kseniya Luchenko), and have placed them on the Federal Wanted List.

Individuals also continue to face prosecution under Administrative Code Article 20.3.3 ("Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation") for opposing the war in Ukraine from a religious perspective.

Most recently, Slavyansk City Court in Krasnodar Region registered a case against independent Orthodox priest Fr Iona Sigida under Administrative Code Article 20.3.3, Part 1 on 8 December. He is due to appear in court on 23 December (see forthcoming F18News article).

A St Petersburg court fined Fr Grigory Okhanov, who is a priest of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and formerly a Moscow Patriarchate lay reader, 30,000 Roubles on 24 September (see forthcoming F18News article).

Ever-increasing internet censorship has seen websites and materials blocked for: "extremist" content; opposition to Russia's war against Ukraine from a religious perspective; material supporting LGBT+ people in religious communities; Ukraine-based religious websites; social media of prosecuted individuals; and news and NGO sites which include coverage of freedom of religion or belief violations.

The Justice Ministry has also added 13 religious leaders and activists to its register of "foreign agents", largely for reasons related to their opposition to the invasion of Ukraine.

Vasilyev: Moscow Buddhist leader to undergo retrial

Moscow Buddhist leader Ilya Vladimirovich Vasilyev (born 9 December 1973) is due to undergo a retrial, after appeal judges at Moscow City Court decided that the first-instance court had violated his right to a defence by not allowing his requested public defender [zashchitnik] to participate in proceedings.

It is unknown when the new trial is likely to begin. Both Moscow City Court and the city's Preobrazhensky District Court directed Forum 18 to the Moscow court system's online portal. This records that the district court registered Vasilyev's case again on 2 December, but has so far listed no hearings.

On 25 June 2025, the district court found Vasilyev guilty under Criminal Code Article 207.3 ("Public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation"), Part 2, Paragraph d ("for reasons of political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred or enmity, or for reasons of hatred or enmity against any social group").

The judge sentenced Vasilyev to 8 years' imprisonment, to be followed by a 4-year ban on "administering websites". Had this entered legal force, it would have been the longest known prison term for opposing Russia's war in Ukraine on religious grounds.

Forum 18 asked Moscow's Preobrazhensky District Court shortly after sentencing why Judge Valentina Lebedeva had decided that such a long custodial term was necessary, and in what way Vasilyev could be considered dangerous. Court press secretary Mariya Martynenko responded that she did not "have the right to comment on the legality and validity of court decisions (orders) or the individual actions of a judge".

Prosecutors had charged Vasilyev based on an English-language Facebook post of 25 December 2022, which said: "Putin rejected Christmas armistice. His rockets are right now shelling peaceful Ukrainian cities and towns. Only yesterday 16 people died in Kherson, where my father's family lives. Or lived? Millions of Ukrainians are now without electricity and water supply. The picture is called 'Christmas 2022'."

Included in the post was a painting by Ukrainian-born artist Iriney Yurchuk, depicting a nativity scene in the ruins of a bombed-out block of flats.

According to the prosecution, with this post Vasilyev deliberately "misled an unlimited number of people" and "created the appearance of illegal activity that violated international law" by the Russian armed forces and government. The prosecution claimed he was acting out of "political hatred, expressed in a 'disdainful, unfriendly, hostile, aggressive' attitude towards the authorities".

Vasilyev made the Facebook post, as well as others on the VKontakte social network which led to a May 2023 administrative prosecution, "solely out of religious conviction", he told Forum 18 through his lawyer in November 2024. He added that he is "not a politician and is engaged only in religion".

Vasilyev: Pre-trial detention extended for 3 more months

A panel of three judges at Moscow City Court overturned the verdict on 22 October 2025, and ordered that a different judge at Preobrazhensky District Court should re-examine Ilya Vasilyev's case. According to their written decision, seen by Forum 18, they did this because, early in the first-instance court proceedings, Vasilyev had requested that an acquaintance of his be permitted to act as his public defender [zashchitnik], alongside his lawyer, and Preobrazhensky District Court refused this on the grounds that the acquaintance did not have legal qualifications.

The appeal judges noted that, according to the Criminal Procedural Code, a defendant may request the participation of a public defender from among their relatives or any other persons, "not instead of, but as well as, a professional lawyer".

The court's refusal to allow this limited Vasilyev's rights under Article 45, Part 2 of the Constitution. This states that everyone has the right "to defend their rights and freedoms by all means not prohibited by law". Courts, the judges stated, are "obliged to provide the accused with the opportunity to defend themselves by all means and methods not prohibited by law".

There is also no requirement that a public defender should hold legal qualifications. The requirement is only that the individual should be able and willing "to exercise, in accordance with the procedure established by law, the protection of the right and interests of the accused and to provide them with legal assistance during the proceedings".

The appeal judges therefore ruled that Vasilyev's case should be sent for a retrial before a new judge at Preobrazhensky District Court, "during which the aforementioned violation must be remedied". They also extended Vasilyev's detention period for three months, until 22 January 2026.

Vasilyev has been in detention since 22 June 2024, initially in Moscow's Kapotnya prison, then in Matrosskaya Tishina Investigation Prison. In early September 2025, he was briefly transferred to Investigation Prison No. 3 in Moscow. He was subsequently returned to Matrosskaya Tishina.

Vasilyev's address in detention:

107076 g. Moskva
ul. Matrosskaya Tishina 18
FKU Sledstvenniy izolyator No. 1 UFSIN Rossii po g. Moskve

Romanyuk: Imprisoned pastor appeals unsuccessfully against conviction

On 25 November 2025, Protestant pastor Nikolay Romanyuk appealed unsuccessfully against his criminal conviction and 4-year prison sentence for criticising Russia's war against Ukraine from a religious perspective in a Sunday sermon. He is now awaiting transfer to a general-regime prison colony.

"Friends, remember Pastor Nikolay in your prayers," his son-in-law and fellow pastor Roman Zhukov wrote on his Telegram channel after the appeal verdict. "This is not the end. We continue to fight, both prayerfully and practically."

Prosecutors also lodged a challenge to the verdict, seeking a harsher sentence, according to Romanyuk's daughter Svetlana Zhukova.

Judge Natalya Duvanova of Moscow Regional Court upheld neither Pastor Romanyuk's nor the Prosecutor's appeals.

Investigators and prosecutors had accused Pastor Romanyuk of "Public calls to implement activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation, or to obstruct the exercise by government bodies and their officials of their powers to ensure the security of the Russian Federation" (Criminal Code Article 280.4) "with the use of his official position", and – because the sermon was livestreamed and uploaded to YouTube – "with the use of mass media, or electronic, or information and telecommunication networks, including the internet" (Part 2 Paragraphs b and v).

On appeal, Judge Duvanova removed the latter, internet-related charge from the indictment, leaving only the charge of "use of his official position", but left the guilty verdict and sentence unchanged.

Romanyuk: 4-year prison term, plus 3-year website administration ban

Balashikha City Court sentenced Nikolay Nikolayevich Romanyuk (born 15 August 1962) on 3 September 2025 to 4 years' imprisonment, to be followed by a 3-year ban on administering websites.

Prosecutors had argued that Pastor Romanyuk had called on others to obstruct the work of military registration and enlistment offices in a sermon he had given at Holy Trinity Pentecostal Church in September 2022, on the first Sunday after the announcement of "partial mobilisation". In the sermon, which was livestreamed, Pastor Romanyuk said that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was "not our war".

"We do not bless those who go there [to war]", Pastor Romanyuk continued. "[Those] who are taken by force, we do not bless them, but we pray that they are rescued from there. There are different legal ways to do this."

Forum 18 wrote to Moscow Regional Prosecutor's Office on 21 November 2025, before the appeal hearing, asking why prosecutors were challenging the lower court's verdict. Forum 18 had received no response by the end of the working day in Moscow Region of 10 December.

Romanyuk: "I am prepared to suffer for my Christian beliefs, but don't attribute to me what I didn't say"

In Pastor Nikolay Romanyuk's 2022 sermon, he says: "When you are offered a hit, when you are offered a bottle of alcohol or you are given a summons to send you to combat – this is the same sin, and the same drug, and the same Satan.. Find me in the Old Testament even a hint that we could somehow participate.. It was written in our doctrine that we are pacifists and cannot participate in this. It is our right to profess this on the basis of Holy Scripture."

According to the exchange of arguments [preniya] (shared by lawyer Anatoly Pchelintsev on his Telegram channel), Ye. Ivshin, a member of the National Guard and parishioner of the church, stated that the sermon had "called for not accepting summons [to serve in the Armed Forces] and not appearing at the meeting of the draft board", and had "offended" other servicemen who attend the church. The only serviceman he named, however, testified that he had not gone to the service on 25 September 2022.

None of the other witnesses who had been present at the service claimed that Pastor Romanyuk had made any such calls, and two parishioners – an army lieutenant colonel and an employee of the Emergency Situations Ministry – testified that Romanyuk had never told them that they should leave military service.

"My speech as a direct participant, documented as such, was not corroborated, but the speech of the false witness [Ivshin] was! How should this be understood? I am prepared to suffer for my Christian beliefs, but don't attribute to me what I didn't say!", Pastor Romanyuk said via videolink during his appeal, according to Roman Zhukov.

(Zhukov was not allowed inside the courtroom because he was a witness in the case, but commented on his Telegram channel that he could hear proceedings from the corridor.)

Romanyuk: "Dad is awaiting transfer to the penal colony"

"There's no hope for this appeal, of course", Pastor Nikolay Romanyuk's daughter Svetlana Zhukova commented on her Telegram channel on 16 November, before the appeal court hearing. "So Dad is awaiting transfer to the penal colony. The fact that they've waited so long for the appeal is absolutely normal; it's what usually happens. (We're still learning about these 'usuals')."

Zhukova added: "People in pretrial detention facilities really look forward to this transfer, as it's a completely different way of life from how it is at present – just being confined within four walls. There [in a colony], you can walk about more, interact more with people, even go and do some sort of work. Dad is no exception; he's also looking forward to it. Surprisingly, he's not afraid at all, even joking that this will be a second chapter to his ministry."

Pastor Romanyuk suffers from hypertension, cerebrovascular disease, psoriasis, and spinal problems (for which he had been receiving treatment before his arrest). He experienced a micro-stroke while in detention in December 2024, which caused him to be hospitalised in an intensive care unit.

Pastor Romanyuk's family is concerned about how the journey to a prison colony (which may take weeks or even months) could affect him. "We're worried, of course," Zhukova noted on Telegram. "We have done what we can. We've insured him, as the actual transfer there often takes place in very difficult and unacceptable conditions, even for a healthy young person. Not to mention [for] Dad, at his age, with his history of strokes and many other ailments. His blood pressure is probably very high right now because of the weather, and he's feeling physically unwell."

After the appeal hearing, court officials permitted Pastor Romanyuk's family to speak with him briefly over videolink. "The connection was bad, everything was blurry, and it was hard to hear. But Dad's voice was strong, his spirit was uplifted – he was so dear to us! Unbroken, uncompromising in his understanding of God's Word!" (END)

More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Russia

For background information see Forum 18's Russia religious freedom survey

Forum 18's compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments

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