Source: www.forum18.org
Date: April 23, 2026
https://www.forum18.org/archiv
By Victoria Arnold, Forum 18
On 24 March, Gagarin District Court in the capital Moscow convicted exiled
Orthodox journalist Kseniya Luchenko for a Telegram post in which she
condemned a Russian missile strike on a Kyiv children's hospital in July
2024, and contrasted this with the Russian state and Moscow Patriarchate's
promotion of so-called "traditional values". The judge sentenced her in
absentia to 8 years' imprisonment.
Forum 18 asked Gagarin District Court why the judge had handed down a
custodial sentence, and what consequences the court envisaged for Luchenko,
given that she remains outside Russia. Forum 18 has received no reply (see
below).
Luchenko and her lawyers lodged an appeal on 6 April, but the Moscow court
system's online portal has not yet listed any appeal hearings (see below).
Before her criminal trial, officials had had Luchenko's name added to the
Interior Ministry's Federal Wanted List, the Federal Financial Monitoring
Service (Rosfinmonitoring) "List of Terrorists and Extremists", and the
Justice Ministry's register of "foreign agents" (see below).
Although Luchenko left Russia in 2022, these measures – and now her
criminal conviction – could nevertheless carry consequences. These
include the risk of extradition if she travels to any state with a
bilateral extradition agreement with Russia, and possible problems with
banking in Western countries as a result of being placed on the
Rosfinmonitoring List (see below).
The re-trial of a Buddhist leader on charges of disseminating false
information about the Russian Armed Forces is due to conclude in a Moscow
court by the end of April. Ilya Vasilyev's initial conviction and 8-year
prison sentence was overturned on a technicality
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
has been appearing before a new judge at Preobrazhensky District Court, but
there has been "nothing really new" in the proceedings, his lawyer told
Forum 18. Vasilyev remains in detention at the capital's Matrosskaya
Tishina prison, almost two years after his arrest (see forthcoming F18News
article).
On 27 March 2026, the Russian Justice Ministry added the Christians Against
War project to its register of "foreign agents" for allegedly disseminating
"false information about the decisions and policies of Russian government
bodies, as well as about the Russian Orthodox Church". Christians Against
War was established shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022
in order to document the persecution of religious believers who oppose the
war in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russian-occupied Ukraine (see
below).
Criminal, administrative convictions for opposing war on religious grounds
Since February 2022, courts have sentenced five people to imprisonment
(including Kseniya Luchenko in absentia) and fined three on criminal
charges for opposing Russia's war against Ukraine in religious terms or on
religious grounds. Investigators have also opened three criminal cases
against other people who have left Russia and placed them on the Federal
Wanted List (https://www.forum18.org/archi
Protestant pastor Nikolay Romanyuk was handed a 4-year prison term
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
under Criminal Code Article 280.4 ("Public calls to implement activities
directed against the security of the Russian Federation, or to obstruct the
exercise by government bodies and their officials of their powers to ensure
the security of the Russian Federation"). He is now serving his sentence in
Vladimir Region, his daughter Svetlana Zhukova stated on her Telegram
channel (https://t.me/zhu4ka_sveta/634
Pastor Romanyuk's prison address is: 601443, g. Vyazniki, ul.
Zheleznodorozhnaya 37, FKU Ispravitelnaya koloniya - 4 UFSIN Rossii po
Vladimirskoy oblasti
Individuals also continue to face prosecution under Administrative Code
Article 20.3.3 ("Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed
Forces of the Russian Federation") for opposing the war in Ukraine from a
religious perspective.
Most recently, Slavyansk City Court in Krasnodar Region fined independent
Orthodox priest Fr Iona Sigida 40,000 Roubles under Administrative Code
Article 20.3.3, Part 1 in December 2025
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
case against Fr Iona on an article on his church's website in which he
wrote "Today, on the night of 23-24 February [2022], the newly revealed
antichrist, the embodiment of the devil, V. Putin, sent his army to destroy
the last unconquered holy Rus' in the person of Ukraine".
(Fr Iona remains under investigation
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
related offence of "overt disrespect for society about days of military
glory" (Criminal Code Article 354.1, Part 4), apparently also for articles
he posted on the website of the Holy Intercession Tikhonite Church in
Slavyansk-na-Kubani. On 16 April, a judge released him from house arrest,
but he is still barred from using the telephone and internet.)
Ever-increasing internet censorship has seen websites and materials blocked
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
content; opposition to Russia's war against Ukraine from a religious
perspective; material supporting LGBT+ people in religious communities;
Ukraine-based religious websites; social media of prosecuted individuals;
and news and NGO sites which include coverage of freedom of religion or
belief violations.
The Justice Ministry has also added at least 14 religious leaders and
activists to its register of "foreign agents", largely for reasons related
to their opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine:
- Erdni-Basan Ombadykov
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
added 27 January 2023; now living outside Russia;
- Pinchas Goldschmidt
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
of Moscow – added 30 June 2023; now living outside Russia;
- Andrey Vyacheslavovich Kurayev
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
added 22 December 2023; now living outside Russia;
- Sergey Nikolayevich Stepanov
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
journalist – added 2 February 2024; now living outside Russia;
- Albert Viktorovich Ratkin, Protestant pastor – added 14 June 2024;
still living in Russia;
- Grigory Aleksandrovich Mikhnov-Vaytenko
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
independent Apostolic Orthodox Church – added 19 July 2024; still living
in Russia;
- Nina Aleksandrovna Belyayeva
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
deputy and Baptist – added 13 September 2024; now living outside Russia;
- Andrey Genriyevich Lvov, former Moscow Patriarchate priest, now serving
in the Apostolic Orthodox Church – added 27 December 2024; now living
outside Russia;
- Kseniya Valeryevna Luchenko, Orthodox journalist (see below) – added 16
May 2025; now living outside Russia;
- Aleksandr Vladimirovich Khmelyov
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
and LGBT+ activist – added 20 June 2025; now living outside Russia;
- Ioann [Dmitry] Valeryevich Kurmoyarov
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Patriarchate priest, now serving in a branch of the Russian Orthodox Church
Outside Russia [ROCOR] not in communion with the Moscow Patriarchate –
added on 15 August 2025;
- Andrey Borisovich Kordochkin
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Patriarchate priest, now serving in the Ecumenical Patriarchate – added
on 22 August 2025;
- Kirill Nikolayevich Govorun
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Patriarchate Archimandrite – added on 5 September 2025; now living
outside Russia;
- Pavel Dmitriyevich Zayakin, pastor of Estonian Evangelical-Lutheran
Church – added on 21 November 2025; now living outside Russia.
Moscow: Exiled Orthodox journalist convicted
On 24 March, Orthodox journalist Kseniya Valeryevna Luchenko (born 13 June
1979) became the first person to be convicted in absentia for criticising
Russia's war in Ukraine from a religious perspective. Judge Yekaterina
Kuzmina of Moscow's Gagarin District Court sentenced her to 8 years'
imprisonment, plus a 4-year ban on "activities related to website
administration using electronic and information and telecommunication
networks, including the Internet", for condemning a Russian missile strike
on a Ukrainian children's hospital.
As Luchenko lives outside Russia, the verdict cannot be enforced, but –
along with being added to Russian Interior Ministry's international wanted
list – it puts her at risk of arrest and extradition if she travels to
any country with bilateral extradition agreements with Russia.
Prosecutors had requested a prison sentence of 8 years and 6 months under
Criminal Code Article 207.3 ("Public dissemination of knowingly false
information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation"),
Part 2, Paragraph d ("for reasons of political, ideological, racial,
national or religious hatred or enmity, or for reasons of hatred or enmity
against any social group").
Both this and the actual sentence imposed lie towards the upper end of the
range of possible punishments for this offence, which include a fine of 3
million to 5 million Roubles, up to 5 years' assigned labour
(prinuditelniye raboty) plus "deprivation of the right to hold certain
positions or engage in certain activities for up to 5 years", or 5 to 10
years' imprisonment followed by the same ban on activities.
Luchenko and her lawyers lodged an appeal on 6 April, but the Moscow court
system's online portal has not yet listed any appeal hearings.
Luchenko has consistently opposed Russia's war against Ukraine and has
written critically about the Moscow Patriarchate's active support for it,
including on her Telegram channel, Orthodoxy and Zombies
(https://t.me/orthozombies), which provides independent news and comment on
the Russian Orthodox Church and supports priests who have opposed the war.
Investigators opened the criminal case
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
September 2025, based on a post on Orthodoxy and Zombies from 8 July 2024,
and a repost of the same text on the website of independent media outlet
Ekho Moskvy on the same day.
The post reads: "The Russian Orthodox state [Rossiyskoye pravoslavnoye
gosudarstvo] celebrated 'The Day of Family, Love, and Fidelity', by
striking a children's hospital in Kyiv with a missile.
"And in Russia, a 'Family Parade' is underway. It began over the weekend,
but is taking place today in most cities. With daisies and the flags of the
World Congress of the Russian People. And with the active participation of
dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church. They celebrate the festive
liturgy, then march in this ersatz procession of the cross [krestniy khod],
singing troparia [hymns], and then presenting medals to large families,
while bombs are falling on Ukrainian children. These are the 'values of
Holy Rus'".
On the morning of 8 July 2024, a Russian missile had hit the Okhmatdyt
children's hospital in Kyiv, injuring ten children and destroying or
severely damaging several departments.
In 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree designating 8
July "The Day of Family, Love, and Fidelity", "in order to preserve
traditional family values and the spiritual-moral education of children and
youth".
Asked in November 2025 why Luchenko was facing criminal investigation, an
official at the office in Moscow responsible for the criminal case told
Forum 18 (https://forum18.org/archive.p
office and we can tell you." Told that Forum 18 is based outside Russia,
the official (who did not give his name) put the phone down.
Forum 18 put the same question in writing to the Federal Investigative
Committee's press service in November 2025, and asked whether Luchenko
would be tried in absentia. Forum 18 received no response
(https://forum18.org/archive.p
Forum 18 wrote to Moscow's Gagarin District Court on 15 April 2026 to ask
why the judge had handed down a custodial sentence, and what consequences
the court envisaged for Luchenko, given that she remains outside Russia.
Forum 18 had received no reply by the end of the working day in Moscow of
23 April.
"I do not repudiate a single word I said"
On 24 March, the day of her sentencing, Kseniya Luchenko wrote on Orthodoxy
and Zombies (https://t.me/orthozombies/156
close the channel. She posted a statement of her position on the criminal
prosecution, which she said the court had refused to add to the case
materials, "although I had the right to send it".
"For my whole life I have worked as a journalist, engaged in media
education, taught media literacy and critical thinking to students and
schoolchildren," Luchenko insisted. "The verification of information is my
profession. I am convinced of the veracity and quality of the information
which I publish on my Telegram channel and in other media.
"As the linguistic expert analysis concluded, I really did characterise the
actions of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation as 'violent,
associated with the deaths of people, including children, and destruction
of civilian infrastructure'. And this is the truth, a monstrous reality,
which does not turn into a fake just because it is denied by Russian
Foreign Ministry representative Mariya Zakharova, whose statements are
included in my case.
"I do not plead guilty, I have never disseminated false information, I do
not repudiate a single word I said."
The South-West Administrative District Prosecutor's Office issued a
statement on Luchenko's case
(https://epp.genproc.gov.ru/ru
on 24 March 2026.
"It has been established," the statement read, "that Luchenko, while
located outside the Russian Federation, publicly posted – on a website as
well as on a channel within a messaging service personally administered by
her – materials containing deliberately false information regarding the
actions of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation against the civilian
population during the special military operation, presented under the guise
of credible information."
Possible consequences even without return to Russia
On 16 May 2025, the Justice Ministry added Kseniya Luchenko to its register
of "foreign agents" (https://www.forum18.org/archi
On 17 October 2025, during the criminal investigation, investigators had
Luchenko's name added to the Federal Financial Monitoring Service
(Rosfinmonitoring) "List of Terrorists and Extremists"
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
are obliged to freeze (although small transactions are permitted).
The Interior Ministry has also placed Luchenko on its Federal Wanted List.
She is among at least 45 individuals on Russia's Federal Wanted List
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
freedom of religion or belief by Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan
and Uzbekistan.
Although Luchenko left Russia in April 2022, Cheryomushki District Court in
Moscow issued a detention order for her in absentia on 24 November 2025.
Moscow City Court upheld this decision
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
This would have seen her immediately arrested should she have returned to
Russia (or travelled to Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, or
Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine), even before her conviction.
Apart from the guarantee of imprisonment should she return to Russia, these
state measures may also have other consequences for Luchenko. Because of
both her "foreign agent" status and being added to the Rosfinmonitoring
List, books and articles Luchenko has published since her inclusion on
these lists – many of them on recent developments in the Russian Orthodox
Church – are generally unavailable in Russian shops and libraries
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
and online sales listings mark her as a "foreign agent".
Inclusion on the Rosfinmonitoring List may also mean problems with banking
abroad, as Western banks still use information from Rosfinmonitoring
(https://carnegieendowment.org
to decide whether or not to block Russian citizens' accounts, or allow them
to open new ones.
Christians Against War named "foreign agent"
On 27 March, the Russian Justice Ministry added the Christians Against War
project to its register of "foreign agents" at No. 1173.
The project publishes information on its website and Telegram channel, as
well as other social media, about religious believers persecuted by both
state and church authorities in Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan for their
opposition to the war, about the repression of religious believers and
communities in Russian-occupied Ukraine, and about the destruction of
Ukrainian religious buildings in Russian attacks.
Christians Against War also criticises the actions of the Russian
government and of the Moscow Patriarchate and other major religious bodies
in Russia in relation to the war.
"The 'Christians Against War' project disseminated false information about
the decisions and policies of Russian government bodies, as well as about
the Russian Orthodox Church", the Justice Ministry stated in its
announcement of additions to the registry
(https://minjust.gov.ru/ru/eve
"It opposed the special military operation in Ukraine," the announcement
declared. "It participated in disseminating messages and materials from
foreign agents to the general public, as well as messages and materials
from organisations included in the list of foreign and international
organisations whose activities are deemed undesirable in the Russian
Federation."
Entry No. 1173 on the "foreign agents" register also lists the website and
various social media accounts of Christians Against War, and names
"participants" Dmitry Koneyenko and Natallia Vasilevich (both Belarusian
citizens).
Russia's Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information
Technology, and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) has blocked the Christians
Against War website (https://shaltnotkill.info/) inside Russia since 9
September 2023 (https://www.forum18.org/archi
Christians Against War was established shortly after Russia's full-scale
invasion of Ukraine in 2022, by activists of Christian Vision, a Belarusian
ecumenical organisation founded in 2020.
On its main website, Christian Vision lists the aims of Christians Against
War (https://belarus2020.churchby.
"cooperation with Ukrainian Christians and churches, as well as with
Russian anti-war Christian activists for promoting a just peace, stopping
Russian aggression against Ukraine, formulating a common Christian position
about war and anti-war activities, documenting the reactions of churches
and church leaders to the war, monitoring persecutions for anti-war and
pro-Ukrainian views, [and] assisting the Christians who suffered from such
persecution". (END)
More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Russia
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
For background information see Forum 18's Russia religious freedom survey
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Forum 18's compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
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