Former head of Russian Baptists Yuriy Sipko has been added to the list of terrorists and extremists updated by Rosfinmonitoring. The decision was published on the agency’s website, according to inVictory.

Inclusion on the list results in the freezing of bank accounts, a ban on financial transactions, and restrictions on travel abroad.

Sipko led the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists from 2002 to 2019 and was known for his active preaching ministry. In August 2023, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case against Yuriy Sipko for the alleged “discrediting of the army.” He was placed on a wanted list. The minister had managed to leave Russia before the wave of detentions and searches began.

The pastor considers the accusations against him to be politically motivated and part of a broader campaign directed against him.

Earlier, we reported that priests of the Russian Orthodox Church who refuse to read a prayer for the victory of Russian troops are being tried for violating the 25th Apostolic Canon. This church rule concerns fornicators, thieves, and oath-breakers. This was reported by Konstantin Kokora, a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, theologian, and educator from Moscow who was forced to leave the country because of his views.

As LF previously reported, Archbishop Pavel Pezzi, who served for 15 years as chairman of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Russia, stepped down from his position. Within Russian Catholic circles, it has been suggested that the authorities insisted on replacing the head of the Russian Catholic community.

It is also known that the chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, Republican Congressman Joe Wilson, along with several other lawmakers, introduced the bill “Countering Russia’s War Against Faith.”

For more on the lack of religious freedom and the instrumentalization of religion in totalitarian regimes, and on those who left Russia to escape repression, see LF’s report.