Russia continues to perpetuate “particularly severe” religious liberty violations against minority groups within its own country and the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, according to a new report. Source: CNA.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released the report on Monday.
The report details religious liberty violations throughout 2024 and the beginning of 2025, and found continued “intense persecution” of Ukrainian Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant Christians.
Within Russia’s borders, the report also found numerous religious liberty violations against human rights activists, independent media, anti-war protesters, and others who belong to minority religious groups.
“Russian authorities abuse vague and problematic laws to target religious communities that do not conform to state authority,” USCIRF chair Vicky Hartzler said in a statement.
“They target Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Falun Gong Practitioners, Protestants, Ukrainian Christians, Crimean [Tatar] Muslims, and many others that Moscow thinks undermine its dictatorial control,” the former six-term Missouri congresswoman added. “There is no religious freedom in Russia or [the] territories it occupies.”
About 72 per cent of Russians are Orthodox, 7 per cent are Muslim, 5 per cent are atheist, and 13 per cent do not have a religious affiliation. About 3 per cent of Russians belong to a variety of other religious groups.
The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has led to the most egregious religious liberty violations by the Russian state.
According to the report, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) have reported the killing of at least 47 religious leaders since the February 2022 invasion. It adds that 640 houses of worship and religious sites have either been damaged or destroyed in that time.
The report notes that “Russian de facto authorities have banned” several churches, such as the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and several Protestant groups, including Baptists, Pentecostals, and Seventh-day Adventists.
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Religious freedom report: Russia guilty of ‘severe’ violations against religious minorities (By Tyler Arnold, CNA)
