It was back in 1999 that the Turkmenistan government declared its intention to “strangle minority faiths. All foreign Christians were expelled and the persecution of national believers, especially ethnic Turkmen, intensified intolerably.
Turkmenistan, an ex-Soviet republic with what human rights watchers call the “harshest state control” in the region has drafted new legislation that will make it difficult for churches to operate and to spread the Gospel, a news agency said Monday, Nov. 3
Total attendance at showings of the Jesus Film in St. Petersburg, Russia, amount to 150,000 people, according to a Russia interpreter who works with American missionaries in this city known as “The Venice of the North.”
Protestant Christians in Azerbaijan are fearing for the future of their children after police raided a Sunday school using old Soviet style “KGB methods”, reports said Thursday September 4.
Barring a miracle, an innocent U.S. citizen is going to spend five years in a Russian prison for a crime he did not commit. Andrew Okhotin’s four months under house arrest and upcoming show trial should outrage anyone who believes in justice. It should also move them to do whatever they can to help.
Baptists and other Protestant groups in two of the most oppressive republics of the former Soviet Union faced fines and possible liquidation Monday, September 1, unless they stop church meetings, reports said.
Just over a month after he signed what critics call “Europe’s most restrictive religion law,” the president of Belarus has agreed to allow a Christian radio program to air daily in his ex-Soviet republic, an official said Tuesday, December 17.
Authorities in the former Soviet republic of Belarus have told Christians and other religious communities they can no longer hold meetings in their homes without prior permission, news reports said Friday, December 13.
Pentecostal Christians in the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia are not allowed to gather for worship amid death threats, while a Baptist church was set on fire amid a government backed crack down against religious minorities, reports suggested Monday June 16.
Baptist Christians in Kazakstan are pressured to no longer express their faith in Christ publicly while their leader is facing possible jail time for refusing to stop bible study meetings in his home, reports said Monday, November 11.
A Baptist church in Azerbaijan is threatened with demolition amid growing concern about wide spread violence and persecution of Christians across the former Soviet Union, news reports said Friday November 8.
The Full Gospel Union of Pentecostal churches in Belarus has said it will defy what human rights groups call “Europe’s most repressive religion law” because it “violates the law of God,” news reports said late Tuesday, November 5.
Belarus’ repressive new religion law enters into legal force this coming Saturday (16 November), Keston News Service has learnt. From that date all unregistered religious activity by organised groups will be illegal; all communities with fewer than 20 members will become illegal and will not be able to function; any religious activity in private homes – apart from occasional, small scale meetings – will be illegal…
In a move expected to further isolate isolate the former Soviet Republic underground , Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko signed Europe’s “most restrictive religious law,” Thursday October 31, the Keston News Service (KNS) said.
In mid-April four Protestant churches – the charismatic Cornerstone Church and Free Church, the Baptist Free Bible Church and an unregistered Pentecostal congregation – were all evicted from state premises which they had been renting for worship services in the capital of Tatarstan, Kazan.
he authorities in Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic in the north-west of Uzbekistan, are trying to halt the spread of Christianity among Karakalpakstan’s native peoples (Uzbeks, Kazakhs and Karakalpaks, who are historically Muslims),
Perhaps because of international reporting on the case, a court in Nukus, the capital of the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan in western Uzbekistan, has handed down what many regard as a “lenient” sentence against the leader of a local Protestant church.
ASTANA / BUDAPEST , (ANS) — Leaders and other believers of non registered Baptist and Evangelical churches in the former Soviet republic of Kazakstan are experiencing a new period of persecution by central authorities, reports said Monday July 1.
NUKUS / BUDAPEST, (ANS) — A correspondent of the Keston News Service (KNS), which covers religious persecution, was harassed by the security service of Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic in Uzbekistan, KNS reported Thursday, June 6.
by Felix Corley, Keston News Service As believers who claim their rights have been violated by the state authorities debate and argue over the best way to resolve such violations, Keston News Service has discovered that Rafik Aliev, chairman of the State Committee for Relations with Religious Organisations, has repeatedly warned believers not to take their complaints to foreigners. “Come to us with your problems and we will sort them out,” he has told religious minority leaders, despite the fact that his office is often the cause of the violations or – in cases where other agencies have violated believers’ … Read more