A Council of Churches Baptist congregation in Kurganinsk in Russia’s southwest Krasnodar region continues to meet for worship outside its church building, which officials sealed in May. The photo shows outdoor worship taking place in August.
On 29 July a local Baptist posted, “Last Sunday I witnessed church members old and young praying on their knees, right on the pavement. The brothers have one heart and one spirit. The church defends its independence from the state.”
Council of Churches Baptists refuse on principle to register with the government and Forum 18 reports that on 6 September 2024 Kurganinsk District Court banned the activities of the 600-strong community unless it submitted notification of its existence. Bailiffs enforced the court order on 16 May 2025 and three days later officials warned Pastor Aleksandr Chmykh that unless he fulfils the court’s demands he will face criminal prosecution. The pastor is pictured preaching outside the closed church building in May.
Pastor Chmykh appealed unsuccessfully against the ruling in November 2024 and again in May 2025, during which period the church continued to hold services, meetings and conferences. The church’s lawyer argued that “the law in terms of the obligation to submit notification contradicts the Constitution of the Russian Federation and violates freedom of religion, and also interferes with the activities of the Church“.
Having had its appeal rejected in the lower courts, the community appealed to the Supreme Court in Moscow, which was due to hear the case on 28 August.
Bailiffs fined Pastor Chmykh 50,000 Roubles (around €530) on 13 February 2025 for “not fulfilling the demands of the court” and he has been fined previously for “unlawful missionary activity” in connection with holding worship services and church conferences.
Refusal to register
Council of Churches Baptists emerged in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and refused to register their communities, unlike Baptists who operated within the state-approved Baptist Union and complied with the Khrushchev government’s restrictions in areas such as sermon content, appointment of pastors and the involvement of children.
By contrast, Council of Churches Baptists rejected these restrictions and established their own council, in effect going “underground”. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union they have met openly in private homes or prayer houses built on private land, arguing that Russia’s 1997 Religion Law and its Constitution and international human rights obligations permit them to meet for worship without state involvement. They now number about 2,500 congregations.
As well as banning the Kurganinsk Baptists, Russian courts have banned several other Council of Churches congregations for refusal to register. Five churches have been banned or have faced lawsuits since the start of 2024, with smaller numbers in previous years, and prosecutors are seeking to ban more. Leaders of banned churches risk fines if they continue to conduct worship services and bailiffs may seal their buildings.
Forum 18 reports that Council of Churches Baptists appear to be the only religious community so far affected, although some other religious communities also worship without registering, such as small rural congregations or groups of students or migrant workers who worship informally in hostels or workplaces.
A 2015 amendment to Russia’s Religion Law requires all unregistered religious associations to notify the authorities (usually regional branches of the Justice Ministry) of their existence and activities, including providing names and addresses of all members and addresses where any meeting takes place.
Leaders of religious groups originally had to provide notification once every three years, but in 2021 another amendment introduced a requirement to submit notification every year.
(Forum 18)
Photos: Baptist Council of Churches via Forum 18