6 February 2026

ARMENIA: Prime Minister seeks to change leadership of legally autonomous Armenian Church

Officials have not responded to questions why Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has repeatedly called for the removal of the head of the Armenian Church, Catholicos Karekin, despite the constitutionally-guaranteed autonomy of religious organisations. A bishop Karekin defrocked for backing Pashinyan's calls challenged his dismissal in court. When the Church ignored his court-ordered reinstatement, the Investigative Committee launched a criminal investigation into six bishops and a priest, banning them from leaving Armenia. The government has liquidated the state and church funded Shoghakat television channel and ended the Church-run military chaplaincy.

2 February 2026

RUSSIA: One church unsealed, others face banning suits

In November 2025, Federal Security Service (FSB) officers, National Guard troops, prosecutor's office and fire service officials inspected a Council of Churches Baptist church in Rostov's Kirov District. In December 2025, a Magistrate's Court fined Pastor Oleg Volkov for "unlawful missionary activity". Prosecutors then sought to ban the church because it refuses to undergo state registration. They did not respond to Forum 18 as to why they are doing this. Courts have so far banned the activities of at least ten Council of Churches communities, largely in Krasnodar Region.

28 January 2026

OCCUPIED UKRAINE: "If we don't register, they'll come to every service and stop it"

Russian Police and military officers (some with automatic weapons) raided Council of Churches Baptists' Sunday worship in Krasnodon on 25 January. "They said that if we don't register, they'll come to every service and stop it taking place," Pastor Vladimir Rytikov said of his interrogation at the police station. The same day, Police Anti-Extremism officers raided another nearby church. In September 2025, officials raided Muslim prayers in Mariupol and fined two imams. Between July and December 2025, officials raided at least eight worship meetings, with six subsequent fines.

20 January 2026

KAZAKHSTAN: Wife to be jailed for advocating for husband jailed in Xinjiang?

Guldaria Sherizat, an ethnic Kazakh originally from Xinjiang, is among 19 people on trial in Taldykorgan on 23 January for "inciting national discord against the Chinese people". At a demonstration she called for freedom for her husband Alimnur Turganbay, jailed in Xinjiang since July 2025. He had called in a 2019 video for freedom for his nephew and two other Muslims jailed in Xinjiang for 17 years for praying. Sherizat's family say this is a freedom of religion case, as she advocated for her husband who had defended his nephew jailed for exercising freedom of religion or belief.

16 January 2026

RUSSIA: Four administrative fines for anti-war articles, criminal investigation underway

Independent Orthodox priest Iona Sigida has not appealed against four administrative fines imposed in late December 2025. At least two punished him for articles on his church's website. Forum 18 asked Slavyansk City Court why expressing religious views on politics and the war in Ukraine was considered "discreditation" of the Armed Forces or "disrespect" for society or the state. The Court chair directed Forum 18 to the written decisions. Fr Iona is under house arrest as he undergoes criminal investigation. Moscow Buddhist leader Ilya Vasilyev's retrial begins on 19 January.

13 January 2026

UZBEKISTAN: No mosque visits for Muslim serving sentence under effective house arrest

Muslim prisoner of conscience Fazilkhoja Arifkhojayev, punished for criticising the regime's religious policies, is now banned from attending mosque. A Tashkent court imposed the new effective house arrest (due to end in October 2029) after Probation Department officials claimed he violated the terms of his conditional prison release. Police blocked Tashkent Muslim Gayrat Ziyakhojayev from his appeal against a fine for posting a Muslim sermon online. Turkish officials are holding former Tashkent imam Fazliddin Parpiyev in an Ankara detention centre. His friends fear torture if extradited to Uzbekistan.

9 January 2026

KAZAKHSTAN: Complaint against church "under pressure and dictation from police"

In November, police raided a Baptist church's worship meeting in Balpyk-Bi, blocking the doors. Those present rejected pressure to write statements. When church leaders refused to register the church, police took administrative cases to court, but a judge dismissed them in December. In September, police visited a Baptist church in Shu. A woman who complained that the church was teaching children later admitted she wrote the complaint "under pressure and dictation from the police". Police interrogated a pastor's child in school in the parents' absence. Police in both cases refused to comment.

19 December 2025

RUSSIA: Peaceful clergy statements "can become the target of prosecution"

In a series of administrative prosecutions, a Krasnodar Region court fined Orthodox priest Fr Iona Sigida on 18 December for allegedly expressing "overt disrespect" for society, state bodies, and state symbols, apparently for articles on his church's website. Other administrative cases are pending. He also faces criminal charges. In September, a St Petersburg court fined Fr Grigory Okhanov for his religiously-based opposition to Russia's war in Ukraine. Also in St Petersburg, Archbishop Grigory Mikhnov-Vaytenko managed to overturn an earlier fine, but the case will be reheard.