<div>Since April 2025 I have been keeping a record of what happens to believers in Russia who refuse to bless the war. Orthodox priests are banned from serving or stripped of their orders for praying for peace instead of victory. Baptist and Pentecostal pastors are fined, imprisoned, or pushed into exile. A leading Buddhist lama has been branded a "foreign agent" and has left the country. Ordinary believers are prosecuted for a social media post, a public prayer, a single-word sign. At least two have died in Russian prisons. My database now holds 120 documented cases, and every month adds more.
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<div>In June 2026 this work became a book: <a href="https://chapnin.org/books/religious-communities-under-pressure/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Religious Communities Under Pressure</a>: Documenting Religious Persecution in Russia 2022–2026, with a foreword by Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury. George Weigel wrote about it in The Wall Street Journal. If you found this page through the QR code on the cover — thank you. This is where the book came from, and where the work goes on.
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<div><strong>Who I am</strong>
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<div>I spent fifteen years in leadership at the Publishing House of the Moscow Patriarchate and served as Executive Editor of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. In December 2015 I was dismissed by Patriarch Kirill's personal order after publicly criticizing the Church's growing role as an instrument of state ideology. Since November 2022 I have been Director of Communications at the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University. The documentation project is something I do on my own time, as a volunteer, without a grant or institutional funding.
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<div><strong>How the work is done</strong>
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<div>Every case is checked against independent sources before it enters the database. I stay in secure contact with many victims who are still in Russia, and I leave out anything that could put them at further risk.
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<div><strong>Where it goes</strong>
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<div>The documentation is translated and sent to the UN, USCIRF, religious organizations, and human rights groups. Printed copies go to church hierarchs and to U.S. immigration courts, where they support the asylum cases of people who fled Russia because of their faith. I have presented the findings at the European Academy of Religion in Rome, at George Washington University, and at the Breaking the Chains conference, organized by the Anglican Persecuted Church Network.
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<div><strong>What your gift does</strong>
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<div>$25 puts a copy of the book in the hands of an immigration attorney, a court, or a human rights organization
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<div>$100 pays for professional translation of new case materials
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<div>$500 helps cover travel to present the findings to policymakers and church leaders
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<div>I post updates here as the work moves: new cases, new presentations, where the book has gone. Updates include links to individual cases, so you can read the stories behind the numbers. If you can't give, please share this page with someone who should know what is happening to believers in Russia.
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Klaus Gjukastein

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Aristotle Papanikolaou

Andriy Chirovsky

Rauno Pietarinen

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Klaus Gjujkastein

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Andreas Rasmussen

Documenting Religious Persecution in Russia

Documenting Religious Persecution in Russia

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