Religious persecution has grown in Russia since the country’s ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2017 with Russian Evangelicals feeling the pressure. Last year, over 100 Russian individuals and 50 organizations were prosecuted for any type of religious activity.
“Believers don’t understand what they can and can’t do,” lawyer Mikhail Frolov told Forum 18, a news service covering religious freedom in Russia and surrounding countries. “Because of heavy fines, they don’t want to take the risk and therefore significantly reduce their activity, especially in public.”
According to Christianity Today, Russian officials have interrupted worship services, charged pastors for hanging signs with church meeting times, and punished Baptists at a bus stop for discussing their faith.
In 2016, Putin signed the Yarovaya laws, intended to prevent terrorism that also set tight restrictions on religious freedoms. Any person or organization accused of “missionary activity” can be prosecuted. Though the law strictly forbids “missionary activity”, officials are prosecuting any religious activity, including prayer meetings and church services.
“There are potentially very wide-sweeping ramifications to this law,” Joel Griffith of the Slavic Gospel Association said in a Mission Network News report when the law was first introduced. “It just depends on,…
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