RUSSIA: “Missionary activity” prosecutions January 2024 to April 2025 – List
By Victoria Arnold
Forum18 (19.06.2025) – The 124 known prosecutions under Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 4 (“Russians conducting missionary activity”) and Part 5 (“Foreigners conducting missionary activity”) between January 2024 and April 2025 are listed. First-instance courts (in one case police) convicted 107 defendants and acquitted three. They closed or returned a further 12 cases to police or prosecutors. Two cases which reached court after the permitted three-month period were dismissed. All but six of those convicted received fines. Most appeals were unsuccessful. Of 35 foreigners charged, 18 were ordered expelled from Russia.
In the 2024 calendar year and the first four months of 2025, there were at least 124 prosecutions across Russia under Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 4 (“Russians conducting missionary activity”) and Part 5 (“Foreigners conducting missionary activity”), according to Forum 18’s review of available court records. The true number is believed to be higher.
The 124 prosecutions found by Forum 18 and figures recorded by the Supreme Court both suggest a slight increase on recent years.
The shift towards more prosecutions for Muslim religious activities, first observed by Forum 18 in 2019 and the first half of 2020, has continued.
(See here for a full analysis of such prosecutions between January 2024 and April 2025, and here for an analysis of the impact on foreign citizens.)
Forum 18 found 90 prosecutions in the 2024 calendar year (64 under Article 5.26, Part 4; 26 under Article 5.26, Part 5), and 34 prosecutions in January to April 2025 (26 under Part 4; 9 under Part 5). Six of these involved registered religious organisations, the remainder individuals, two of whom were charged as an “official person” (dolzhnostnoye litso).
First-instance courts (and in one case the police) convicted 107 defendants and acquitted three. They closed or sent a further 12 cases back to police or prosecutors. Two cases were dismissed because they reached court after the permitted three-month time period for administrative prosecutions had passed (the statute of limitations).
The period January 2024 to April 2025 therefore saw an initial conviction rate (for those cases which reached a verdict) of 96.4 per cent. All but six of those convicted received fines – a Muslim imam and two Baptist Union churches (tried twice each) were given warnings, and one Society for Krishna Consciousness adherent received no punishment as the statute of limitations had expired.
Defendants submitted initial appeals in 31 known cases, most of which were unsuccessful. Twelve individuals, mostly from southern Russia, have further challenged their convictions in the cassational courts – the majority of these have been heard in the 4th Cassational Court in Krasnodar.
Of the 35 foreigners charged under Article 5.26, Part 5 (“Foreigners conducting missionary activity”), 18 were ordered expelled from Russia, 14 of whom were sent to immigration detention centres before departure.
Amendments to several Articles of the Administrative Code, which came into force on 5 February 2025, mean that police are now able to handle Article 5.26, Part 5 cases without going to court. This allows police to impose both fines and administrative expulsion as punishment. It is therefore difficult to ascertain how many foreign citizens may be facing prosecution for unlawful “missionary activity”, unless they manage to lodge appeals. Forum 18 has found only one instance of this so far.
Russia has also imposed its “anti-missionary” legislation in Ukrainian territories which it has illegally occupied.
These prosecutions are based on amendments to the Administrative Code and Religion Law introduced in July 2016 as part of the “Yarovaya” package of “anti-terrorism” laws.
Religious organisations also continue to face prosecution under Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 3 (“Implementation of activities by a religious organisation without indicating its official full name, including the issuing or distribution, within the framework of missionary activity, of literature and printed, audio, and video material without a label bearing this name, or with an incomplete or deliberately false label”).
Full list of known “missionary activity” prosecutions
The list below of known administrative cases to punish “missionary activity” under Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 4 (“Russians conducting missionary activity”) and Part 5 (“Foreigners conducting missionary activity”) is based on court decisions and other information known to Forum 18. Cases are listed in date order of initial decision.
Photo : 4th Cassational Court, Krasnodar, February 2021 – Google
