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CV NEWS FEED // In a disturbing trend of religious oppression, Russia has intensified its attacks on Christian communities, criminalizing expressions of faith both domestically and in occupied regions of Ukraine.
The findings are part of the 2025 Global Persecution Index (GPI), an annual report from the nonprofit International Christian Concern (ICC) that tracks the oppression of Christians worldwide.
The report identifies Russia as a key perpetrator of state-sponsored religious persecution, according to an emailed ICC press release.
“Russia’s Tsarist-style government, along with its chief enforcer, the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarch (ROC-MP), is the archetype of state control and oppression, and communities of faith are the battlegrounds,” the report stated.
The situation is extremely dire in the occupied territories of Ukraine. The report reveals that at least 125 religious sites have been destroyed or severely damaged, with some estimates suggesting the number could be as high as 630. Alongside this devastation, ICC reported the murder, kidnapping, and torture of 43 clergy members.
A proposed law in the Russian State Duma to ban house church worship, coupled with the adoption of “persecution as policy” noted by ICC President Jeff King, signals an alarming escalation in religious restrictions, according to an emailed version of the release.
“Russian authorities now target religious speech, literature and missionary activities, branding them as ‘extremist’ to control and suppress non-Russian Orthodox Christian practices,” King said, according to the email.
King, who has been the president of ICC since 2003, is a specialist in the areas of religious persecution and religious freedom, according to the report. His organization “exists to bandage the wounds of persecuted Christians and to build the church in the toughest parts of the world.”
