Russia has expanded its crackdown on foreign religious organizations by designating Christian ministries as “undesirable,” a move that can expose Russian citizens and institutions to fines or criminal penalties for cooperating with them, according to religious freedom watchdog Forum 18.
Following a determination by the General Prosecutor’s Office that certain foreign groups pose a threat to national security, Russia’s Justice Ministry added U.S.-based Mission Eurasia to its official register of “undesirable organizations.”
Under Russian law, individuals and organizations that work with blacklisted groups can face administrative penalties and, in some cases, criminal prosecution.
In July, a court convicted Pyotr Mitskevich, president of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists and rector of Moscow Theological Seminary, under Article 20.33 after prosecutors inspected the seminary library and found books published by Mission Eurasia.
The materials included Christian leadership and ministry resources from Mission Eurasia’s School Without Walls program. Mitskevich was fined 20,000 rubles, approximately $234.
In a separate case, authorities fined a local Baptist pastor after discovering 178 copies of the New Testament and 74 Gospel of John booklets published by Mission Eurasia inside his church. A Moscow Region court subsequently ordered that the confiscated Scriptures be destroyed.
Mission Eurasia President Sergey Rakhuba, who was born in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas Region, said Russian authorities gave the ministry no advance notice or explanation before placing it on the blacklist. Over the past three decades, the organization has trained thousands of young Christian leaders, distributed Bibles and other literature, planted churches and provided humanitarian assistance.
Rakhuba said Russian authorities have become increasingly suspicious of independent organizations with international connections, particularly groups operating outside direct state control.
Through its Religious Freedom Initiative, Mission Eurasia has documented alleged human rights violations in Russia and Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. Independent reports have also described the abduction and torture of religious leaders, seizure of church property, restrictions on minority religious groups and preferential treatment for the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in occupied territories.
The “undesirable” designation prevents Mission Eurasia from legally maintaining offices in Russia and forces longstanding partnerships, financial support and resource-sharing arrangements to be restructured to reduce legal risks for Russian evangelicals.
Russia adopted sweeping anti-terrorism legislation known as the Yarovaya law in 2016, imposing tighter limits on missionary activity and public evangelism. Later “foreign agent” laws created additional concerns for church leaders about whether receiving foreign training or financial assistance could expose them to government scrutiny.
“Governments can close an organization’s office. They can prohibit a foreign organization. They can confiscate books. They can block financial channels,” Rakhuba said. “But it is much harder to stop the gospel when it is already in the hearts and hands of thousands of local believers.”
