The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief
5 September 2025
RUSSIA: Protestant pastor jailed for 2022 anti-war sermon
On 3 September, Balashikha City Court jailed 63-year-old Pastor Nikolay Romanyuk for 4 years for a 2022 sermon that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was "not our war". "Yes, I gave a sermon in which I touched on military, albeit forced, murder. I do not retract what I said", he told the court in his final speech. The court did not answer Forum 18's question why the judge imposed such a long jail sentence, given his age and health problems. Buddhist leader Ilya Vasilyev's appeal against his 8-year jail term is due on 10 September.
1 September 2025
OCCUPIED UKRAINE: Russian-imposed punishments for meeting for worship, sharing faith
Russian Police and Anti-Extremism Police in occupied Ukraine raided Council of Churches Baptist worship meetings, on 8 June in Krasnodon and on 10 August in Sverdlovsk. Russian-controlled Krasnodon Town Court fined Pastor Vladimir Rytikov a month's average wages for "missionary activity" for leading his unregistered church. Courts are known to have punished for "missionary activity" 1 person in May, 1 in June, 3 in July and 2 in August. In one case, the Judge ordered destroyed Bibles and hymnbooks seized from Oksana Volyanskaya. Courts also punished at least 3 religious communities.
29 August 2025
OCCUPIED UKRAINE: Criminal case against Jehovah's Witness "leader"
Russian officials in occupied Donetsk Region arrested and charged a man identified only as K. for being a "leader of the banned religious organisation Jehovah's Witnesses". The Russian-controlled Donetsk Supreme Court said he had been active in the organisation the Russians deem "extremist" between 2018 and 2023. A Donetsk court ordered two months' pre-trial detention. If convicted, he faces up to six years in jail. "No individual should be criminally charged or detained simply for practising their religion", UN Secretary-General António Guterres declared in a May report on Russian-occupied Ukraine.
21 August 2025
AZERBAIJAN: First jailing of conscientious objector for 3 years
On 30 July, Yevlakh District Court jailed 19-year-old Jehovah's Witness Elgiz Ibrahimov for one year for refusing compulsory military service on grounds of conscience. Officials arrested him in the courtroom. They took him to a high-security prison in Ganca, initially holding him in a cell with 40 other men and 10 beds. He has appealed. Zahid Oruj, chair of Parliament's Human Rights Committee, appears to accept the criminal prosecution of conscientious objectors. He insisted that since no Alternative Service Law exists, "our judicial institutions have taken the right steps".
20 August 2025
RUSSIA: Council of Churches Baptist communities banned
Council of Churches Baptists continue to meet for worship outside their church building in Kurganinsk in Krasnodar Region, three months after bailiffs sealed it. They were enforcing a September 2024 court order prohibiting the activities of the 600-strong community unless it submitted notification of its existence. Courts have banned several other Council of Churches congregations, with prosecutors seeking more. Neither Krasnodar Regional Prosecutor's Office nor Kurganinsk District Court responded to Forum 18 as to why they had been involved in prohibiting the church's activities.
14 August 2025
KYRGYZSTAN: Supreme Court permanently bans Reform Adventists as "extremist"
On 4 August, three Supreme Court judges rejected the True and Free Reform Adventist Church's appeal against their banning as "extremist". The Judges "were so swift to go through the case materials without giving proper attention to arguments" from lawyer Akmat Alagushev, Church members complain. The decision cannot be appealed. Church members intend to complain to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Religious studies scholar Indira Aslanova says the ban "raises serious concerns". "Such precedents can lead to the criminalisation of peaceful forms of religious practice."
30 July 2025
RUSSIA: Old Catholic priest fined for anti-war sermons
Fr Aleksandr Khmelyov, an Old Catholic priest, left Russia on 11 July after Telegram channels thought to be linked to state security services claimed investigators were preparing further administrative and criminal cases against him possibly for "creation of an extremist community" or "LGBT propaganda". Earlier that day, a St Petersburg court fined him for "discrediting" the Russian Armed Forces in a February 2022 sermon. A spokesperson for the St Petersburg court system ignored Forum 18's questions about why Fr Aleksandr's actions were considered "discreditation" of the Armed Forces.
29 July 2025
AZERBAIJAN: Large fines for religious meeting
Officers were watching a home in Nakhichevan where Christians were meeting. About 20 officers raided a Sunday worship meeting in April. They held three visitors from Baku for two days without food. Police brought cases against them and two local people. Nakhichevan City Court fined the five up to three months' average wage each on 19 June. The five will struggle to pay the large fines, an individual familiar with the cases said. Also fined and apparently deported were members of a Korean family who allowed the meetings in their home.
25 July 2025
UKRAINE: Official claims "social outrage" prevents Romanian Orthodox registration
A Religious Association of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Ukraine lodged a registration application in August 2024. The State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) did not accept or reject it by the legal deadline of November 2024. DESS head Viktor Yelensky denies it has rejected the application, but insists "broad consultations" and agreement with a different community, the state-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine, are needed. When three parishes tried to transfer from the Moscow-linked Ukrainian to the Romanian Orthodox Church, officials threatened to send priests and male villagers to the front.
14 July 2025
KYRGYZSTAN: Reform Adventist Pastor's 3-year jail term plus deportation
In November 2024 the NSC secret police arrested and tortured True and Free Reform Adventist Pastor Pavel Shreider, placing him in pre-trial detention. In March 2025 a court banned his Church as "extremist". On 10 July a Bishkek court jailed the 65-year-old for 3 years in a general regime labour camp on charges of "incitement of racial, ethnic, national, religious, or regional enmity", charges he denied. Judge Ubaydulla Satimkulov ordered his post-prison deportation. Officials brought Pastor Shreider to court in handcuffs.
10 July 2025
BELARUS: "God may be calling you to church, but prison officials decide"
Four of the freed political prisoners recount restrictions on prisoners' exercise of freedom of religion or belief. Political prisoners are barred from attending Orthodox prison chapels. "God may be calling you to church, but prison officials decide," Ihar Karnei notes. Orthodox Christian Sergei Tikhanovsky was denied access to a priest for more than 5 years. Denials of access to meetings for worship, religious literature and clergy visits violate the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. Officials of four of the prisons refused to discuss the restrictions with Forum 18.
4 July 2025
RUSSIA: Buddhist leader given longest known anti-war jail term
A Moscow court jailed Buddhist leader Ilya Vasilyev on 25 June for eight years for allegedly disseminating "knowingly false information" about Russia's Armed Forces, the longest known prison term for opposing Russia's war against Ukraine on religious grounds. "We called for the voice of reason, but it seems the judge heard only the voice of the prosecutor's office," his lawyer Gevorg Aleksanyan said. A court spokesperson refused comment on the verdict or why the Judge refuses a prison visit from a Buddhist priest. Protestant pastor Nikolay Romanyuk's criminal trial may begin in mid-July.