On July 29, Vladislav Girko, a presbyter of a local church affiliated with the International Union of Churches of Evangelical Christian Baptists, appeared in court in Blagoveshchensk. The city prosecutor’s office asked the court to find him guilty of illegal missionary activity.
The report says that in late May and early June, the clergyman was jointly questioned by representatives of the local branches of the FSB, the Interior Ministry, and the prosecutor’s office. In practice, this amounted to an interrogation recorded in an official protocol.
A private prayer house where Girko led meetings of a small local congregation was also subjected to a joint inspection by the same agencies. Specialists from the National Guard, Emergencies Ministry, and Rospotrebnadzor were involved as well. The inspection reportedly concluded that holding religious meetings in the house was unlawful.
During the questioning, the presbyter was strongly advised to register the congregation and warned that refusing to do so could lead to criminal liability. At the same time, refusal of state registration is part of the doctrine of these Evangelical Baptists, also known as the “Initiators”.
The name refers to the Initiative Group for convening an all-Union congress of Evangelical Christian Baptists, which emerged in 1961 in response to Khrushchev-era persecution of religion. Later, under Brezhnev, when pressure on believers eased, the Soviet authorities partly reconciled themselves to the movement, although repression continued in targeted form against its most active leaders.
The article says that the International Union of Churches of Evangelical Christian Baptists, which unites more than 2,500 congregations, now risks facing a scenario in present-day Russia similar to that of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In 2017, Russia’s Supreme Court declared them “extremists,” dissolved all of their congregations, and banned them throughout the country.