The annual report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), published in March, again places Russia among the countries of particular concern for systematic violations of freedom of religion. The authors of the document say that in 2025 Russia committed “particularly severe” abuses.
The report says the Russian authorities broadly use the labels “foreign agent,” “extremist,” and “undesirable” against religious communities and individual believers. USCIRF lists 190 Jehovah’s Witnesses in prison or subjected to forced labor, while the Memorial human rights group had previously estimated that at least 800 people faced criminal prosecution after the denomination’s communities were banned in 2017.
Among the cases cited are Ivan Neverov and Mikhail Shevchuk, sentenced in Saransk, and Valery Bilo, who died in a pretrial detention center in Krasnodar region after repeated refusals of medical care. The report also describes pressure on Protestants: Nikolai Romanyuk, a Pentecostal pastor in Balashikha, was sentenced to four years in prison over a sermon opposing the war and mobilization.
The document separately describes actions against Orthodox clerics who opposed the war or refused to read prayers for the victory of Russian forces. Those designated as “foreign agents” include Andrei Kordochkin, hieromonk Ioann (Kurmoyarov), archimandrite Kirill (Govorun), and priest Alexander Khmelev.
USCIRF also reports persecution of Muslims in cases tied to Hizb ut-Tahrir, the case of Natalya Minenkova, who received four years on charges of organizing the activities of an “undesirable” structure linked to Falun Gong, and the retrial of Buddhist community leader Ilya Vasilyev. A separate section says that in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, at least 47 Christian leaders have been killed since February 2022 and more than 700 religious sites have been damaged or destroyed.