18 March 2026

RUSSIA: Handcuffed, stripped, beaten, "repeatedly subjected to electric shocks"

The FSB raided at least four Jehovah's Witness households in Dimitrovgrad in Ulyanovsk Region early on 3 February. Masked officers knocked down Zhanna Popova when she answered the door. An officer struck her 60-year-old husband Igor Popov in the back, "forcibly twisting his neck", apparently to make him give up his computer password. At the local FSB headquarters, Popov was handcuffed, stripped, beaten, and "repeatedly subjected to electric shocks". An investigator forced him to sign a prepared statement "incriminating himself". Officials have not answered Forum 18's questions about the torture.

11 March 2026

BELARUS: "Your long-time pastor is leaving your parish against his will"

Polish Catholic parish priest Fr Paweł Kruczek had served in Belarus for almost 20 years, Fr Adam Straczyński for 11 years. Their Bishop describes their "forced departure" as "painful". The regime's senior religious affairs official, Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic Affairs Aleksandr Rumak, refused the Bishop's request for the two to continue to be allowed to conduct religious work in Belarus. Andrei Aryayev of the Religious Department of the Plenipotentiary's Office in Minsk and Irina Zakharevich of the Ideology Directorate of Brest Regional Executive Committee both refused to discuss the refusals.

5 March 2026

BELARUS: Praying daily for "speedy and honest restoration" of Red Church

Asked if Saints Simon and Helena Catholic Church (Red Church) in central Minsk will be returned for worship once renovations are complete in January 2027, Deputy Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic Affairs Sergei Gerasimenya and Head of the Ideology, Religion, and Ethnic Affairs Coordination Department of Minsk City Executive Committee Tatyana Shevchik both refused to say. Minsk Heritage – which controls the building and ordered it closed after a September 2022 suspicious minor fire - refused Catholic requests to visit the tomb of the Church's founder Edvard Vainilovich on 10 April.

27 February 2026

RUSSIA: Revocation of citizenship after extremism convictions "gaining momentum"

Born in Soviet Uzbekistan, Rustam Diarov had his Russian citizenship revoked in February 2025 while he was in jail to punish him for participation in Jehovah's Witness meetings. On 17 February 2026, prison authorities released Diarov early on health grounds and by the following evening he was in Uzbekistan. His wife, a Russian citizen, went with him. Interior Ministry authorities have revoked the Russian citizenship of at least 12 Jehovah's Witnesses and 2 Muslims convicted for exercising freedom of religion. The practice "has been gaining momentum over the past year", Jehovah's Witnesses observe.

26 February 2026

KAZAKHSTAN: Orthodox priest's 2-month pre-trial detention – on "fabricated" charges?

On 25 February, Almaty's Investigative Court ordered independent Orthodox priest Yakov Vorontsov held until 23 April as investigators pursue criminal charges that he ran a drugs den. Police Investigator Daniyar Kametov, who is leading the investigation, refused to answer questions. The criminal investigation "appears to be fabricated and ordered", Fr Yakov wrote from prison. His lawyer Galym Nurpeisov described the case as a "frame-up [provokatsiya in Russian]". "We suspect that behind this is the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian FSB," he added. Fr Yakov is trying to register an independent Orthodox parish.

20 February 2026

KAZAKHSTAN: Independent Orthodox priest's 10-day jailing, criminal case underway

Supporters of independent Orthodox priest Fr Yakov Vorontsov – whose 40th birthday is today – fear officials might not release him from his 10-day jail term on 23 February, but rearrest him on criminal drugs charges. He and his supporters say the charges are fabricated. He leads a newly-created independent Orthodox parish. Justice Department officials rejected its first registration application. The parish applied again. The cases are "a result of his wanting to register an independent Orthodox parish, and of his criticism of Russia's war against Ukraine," his lawyer Galym Nurpeisov insists.

17 February 2026

UZBEKISTAN: Mosque prayers for sick mother to lead to former prisoner of conscience re-jailing?

Probation Department officials threatened they would return Muslim former prisoner of conscience Fazilkhoja Arifkhojayev to jail if he again violates the terms of his conditional release. They spotted him visiting a Tashkent mosque to pray for his mother on his way home from hospital. On transfer to conditional release in December 2025, the court-imposed restrictions include a ban on visiting mosques. Former Tashkent imam Fazliddin Parpiyev remains in a Turkish deportation centre awaiting likely return for trial. Alisher Tursunov, a Muslim returned by Turkey in May 2025, was jailed.

16 February 2026

UZBEKISTAN: Political prisoner tortured for protest against ban on reading Koran

Political prisoner Dauletmurat Tajimuratov is serving a 16-year term in Navoi's Prison No. 11 for involvement in the 2022 Karakalpak protests. The Muslim has repeatedly faced punishment for exercising freedom of religion in prison. In 2025, officials "seized .. uneaten food before he could break his fast for Ramadan, resulting in him not eating for four consecutive days," UN human rights rapporteurs noted. In November 2025, guards banned reading the Koran on the prison rest day. When officials insulted him publicly, he threw a boot at them. Guards tortured him.