Source: www.forum18.org
Date: April 16, 2025
https://www.forum18.org/archiv
By Victoria Arnold, Forum 18
On 14 April, the criminal trial of 53-year-old independent Christian
preacher Eduard Charov for repeat "discreditation" of the Armed Forces
began at the Central Region Military Court in Yekaterinburg. Charov also
stands accused of "public calls to commit terrorist activities, public
justification of terrorism or propaganda of terrorism, using the internet"
for what his wife Inna called a "sarcastic comment" on social media on
another user's post. Charov's next hearing is due on 27 May.
In one of his social media posts, Charov wrote: "You church people! Come to
your senses! Understand! Think about it, would Jesus Christ have gone to
kill in Ukraine????!" (see below).
At present, Charov remains at home under specific restrictions, including a
ban on using the phone and internet and on leaving his home district
without permission (see below).
Forum 18 has repeatedly asked Sverdlovsk Region Prosecutor's Office and
Krasnoufimsk District Prosecutor's Office how any of his social media
comments could be considered "discreditation" of the Armed Forces or
Russian state bodies. Forum 18 also asked what punishment prosecutors would
be seeking in the criminal case. Forum 18 has received no response (see
below).
Charov is among three religious leaders facing criminal cases for
condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine on religious grounds and
criticising Russia's conduct of its war.
The trial of 51-year-old Zen Buddhist leader Ilya Vasilyev continues in
Moscow on charges of disseminating "false information" about the Russian
Armed Forces "for reasons of political, ideological, racial, national or
religious hatred or enmity, or for reasons of hatred or enmity against any
social group". Vasilyev is being prosecuted for an English-language
Facebook post about Russian rocket attacks on Ukrainian cities, which he
made "solely out of religious conviction", his lawyer told Forum 18 (see
below).
Vasilyev – arrested in June 2024 - spent 15 days in solitary confinement
from mid-February 2025 for allegedly not walking with his hands behind his
back in his detention centre in Moscow (see below).
Forum 18 wrote to the head of Matrosskaya Tishina prison, Andrey Selyunin,
asking why Vasilyev had been put in solitary confinement for such a long
time for a minor infringement of the rules and why his letters had been
delayed or not delivered because he used the expression "political
prisoners". Forum 18 has received no response (see below).
Protestant pastor Nikolay Romanyuk is under criminal investigation for
preaching a sermon in which he explicitly stated that, "on the basis of
Holy Scripture", Christians should not go to fight in Ukraine. The
62-year-old has been in detention since October 2024 despite his poor
health (he suffered a mini-stroke while behind bars). A court extended his
pre-trial detention period for a third time on 15 April until 17 June (see
below).
"Time after time, with horror in their eyes, [investigators tell the court]
what a dangerous criminal Romanyuk is, and why he should remain under the
watchful eye of [prison service] representatives, locked in a [detention
centre] cell," Pastor Romanyuk's son-in-law noted after the latest hearing.
"Time after time, independent judges do not see an objective reason to
transfer an elderly man to house arrest" (see below).
Pastor Romanyuk faces possible charges of "public calls to implement
activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation, or to
obstruct the exercise by government bodies and their officials of their
powers to ensure the security of the Russian Federation", using the media
or the internet (see below).
Forum 18 has repeatedly sent enquiries to the Federal Investigative
Committee, the Moscow Region Investigative Committee, and the Moscow Region
branch of the FSB security service, asking in what way Pastor Romanyuk's
sermon threatened state security, why he is being kept in detention,
whether any criminal or administrative cases have been opened against any
other church members, and why officials deemed it necessary to carry out
armed raids on their homes. Forum 18 has received no response (see below).
On 1 April, a St Petersburg court fined Grigory Mikhnov-Vaytenko,
Archbishop of the Apostolic Orthodox Church (which is not part of the
Moscow Patriarchate), who has consistently opposed Russia's war against
Ukraine. He was punished for allegedly "discrediting" the Russian Armed
Forces in a video on his Telegram channel more than three years earlier.
Mikhnov-Vaytenko now expects a second accusation of "discreditation" and
criminal prosecution (see forthcoming F18News article).
Charges and punishments
Soon after Russia launched its renewed invasion of Ukraine in February
2022, Vladimir Putin introduced new offences in order to prosecute those
opposing the war for any reason, including on religious grounds.
These included – but were not limited to – Administrative Code Article
20.3.3 (https://www.forum18.org/archi
associated Criminal Code Article 280.3
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
2022 to punish alleged "discreditation" of the Armed Forces. Amendments to
the law on 25 March 2022 expanded the definition of this offence to include
"discreditation" of "the execution by state bodies of the Russian
Federation of their powers for the specified purposes", ie. protecting
Russian interests and "maintaining international peace and security".
The government has used a range of tactics
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
leaders into supporting the renewed invasion of Ukraine. These tactics
include warnings to senior and local religious leaders, and prosecuting and
fining religious believers and clergy who have publicly opposed the war.
Similar warnings and prosecutions have been used against many Russians who
express opposition to the war for any reason.
Since February 2022, courts have jailed two and fined three
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
for opposing Russia's war against Ukraine on religious grounds.
Investigators have also opened three criminal cases
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
have left Russia, and have placed them on the Federal Wanted List
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
One of those sentenced to imprisonment, Fr Ioann Kurmoyarov, who was
released in August 2024
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
He says he pleaded guilty only under pressure, and is now preparing a
cassational appeal against his conviction.
Many others who publicly or online protested against the war
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
the Administrative Code
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
"offences" can lead to prosecution under the Criminal Code
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
possibility of jail terms.
Ever-increasing internet censorship has seen websites and materials blocked
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
content; opposition to Russia's war against Ukraine from a religious
perspective; material supporting LGBT+ people in religious communities;
Ukraine-based religious websites; social media of prosecuted individuals;
and news and NGO sites which include coverage of freedom of religion or
belief violations.
Sverdlovsk Region: Criminal "discreditation" trial begins
On 14 April, the trial of independent Christian preacher Eduard
Aleksandrovich Charov (born 18 July 1971) began at the Central Region
(Okrug) Military Court in Yekaterinburg. His next hearing is due on 27 May,
according to the court website. At present, he remains at home under
specific restrictions, including a ban on using the phone and internet and
on leaving his home district without permission.
Prosecutors charged him on 24 December 2024
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Article 280.3, Part 1 ("Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the
Armed Forces of the Russian Federation" more than once in a year) and
Article 205.2, Part 2 ("Public calls to commit terrorist activities, public
justification of terrorism or propaganda of terrorism, using the
internet"). Both accusations are based on comments he made on the VKontakte
social network, none of which called for any violent action.
Terrorism-related cases fall under the jurisdiction of regional (okruzhny)
military courts, regardless of the status of the defendant. The case
against Charov, who is a civilian, nevertheless remains the responsibility
of civilian prosecutors.
The charges against Charov carry the following possible punishments:
- Criminal Code Article 280.3, Part 1 – a fine of 100,000 to 300,000
Roubles; or up to 3 years' assigned labour; or 4 to 6 months' detention in
an "arrest house" (arestny dom); or up to 5 years' imprisonment.
- Criminal Code Article 205.2, Part 2 – a fine of 300,000 to 1 million
Roubles; or 5 to 7 years' imprisonment.
Under Criminal Code Article 69, if a person is found guilty of more than
one crime in the same court process, the judge will decide on separate
penalties for each, then add them together partially or in their entirety
to form an aggregate sentence.
Charov's first offence of "discreditation" took place in 2022, when,
according to court documents, he made multiple posts on VKontakte
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
"attributing purposefully hostile, violent, discriminatory actions of the
Armed Forces of the Russian Federation against civilians or socially
significant objects [and] attributing the commission of war crimes to
Russian military personnel on the territory of Ukraine".
According to the Christians Against War (https://t.me/shaltnotkill)
Telegram channel, in one of these posts Charov said "You church people!
Come to your senses! Understand! Think about it, would Jesus Christ have
gone to kill in Ukraine????!" [punctuation original]. In other posts, he
apparently also called President Vladimir Putin the Antichrist, according
to independent Russian media outlet Mediazona
(https://zona.media/news/2024/
On 18 April 2023, Krasnoufimsk District Court fined Charov 45,000 Roubles
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Code Article 20.3.3, Part 1 and 20,000 Roubles under Administrative Code
Article 20.3.1 ("Incitement of hatred or enmity"). The fines added up to
more than 4 weeks' average wages for Sverdlovsk Region. Charov is a
pensioner and his wife Inna receives disability benefits – they run a
shelter for homeless elderly people in the Sverdlovsk Region village of
Savinovo. The fines therefore presented a serious burden.
(After the announcement of "partial mobilisation in September 2022, Charov
also publicly offered sanctuary at the shelter to any reservists fleeing
call-up to the army.)
According to Investigative Committee documents seen by Forum 18, Charov
committed the offence which led to his prosecution under Criminal Code
Article 280.3 on 3 September 2023, when he reposted an image from another
user's VKontakte page. This contained the unattributed quotation
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
someone who wants to make their country better, the people richer, and the
government more honest and fair. Not someone who justifies total
destitution and corruption with imaginary greatness and spiritual bonds."
Unnamed linguistic experts judged this to contain "linguistic and
psychological signs of persuading [readers] of the negative nature of the
goals of Russian state bodies' use of their powers, that is, their
discreditation".
Forum 18 has repeatedly asked Sverdlovsk Region Prosecutor's Office and
Krasnoufimsk District Prosecutor's Office how any of these comments could
be considered "discreditation" of the Armed Forces or Russian state bodies,
but has received no explanation.
Forum 18 also asked on 10 April what punishment prosecutors would be
seeking in the criminal case. Forum 18 had received no response by the end
of the working day in Sverdlovsk Region of 16 April.
In early February 2024, investigators also opened a case against Charov
under Criminal Code Article 205.2, Part 2 for what his wife Inna called a
"sarcastic comment" he made in August 2023 on another user's VKontakte post
about an act of arson at a military recruitment and enlistment office in
the Sverdlovsk Region town of Polevskoy: "Award the Order of Courage
posthumously with confiscation of property."
"This is all slander against me", Charov commented to local news website
It's My City
(https://itsmycity.ru/2025-04-
after his first full hearing before Judge Sergey Rassokha on 14 April.
"They simply designated a terrorist from a remote village to fulfil the
plan for terrorists and that's it. And so there is not even any evidence of
a crime."
Moscow: Buddhist leader's trial continues
The trial of Zen Buddhist leader Ilya Vladimirovich Vasilyev (born 9
December 1973) is continuing in Moscow
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
custody at Matrosskaya Tishina prison, more than nine months after his June
2024 arrest.
Vasilyev stands accused of "Public dissemination of knowingly false
information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for
reasons of political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred or
enmity, or for reasons of hatred or enmity against any social group"
(Criminal Code Article 207.3, Part 2 Paragraph 'e'). This can incur a fine
of up to 5 million Roubles, up to 5 years' assigned labour, or up to 10
years' imprisonment.
Vasilyev has made six appearances so far at the capital's Preobrazhensky
District Court. The court postponed his latest scheduled hearing, on 19
March, as Judge Valentina Lebedeva was involved in the sentencing of
another case. It is now due to take place on 18 April to give the defence
time to present evidence, Vasilyev's lawyer Gevorg Aleksanyan told Forum 18
on 14 April.
At this hearing, Judge Lebedeva will also rule on whether to extend
Vasilyev's term of detention. This is currently due to expire on 24 April.
There will likely be three or four more hearings before a verdict is
expected, Aleksanyan believes.
Before his prosecution, Vasilyev had been on the point of taking his vows
as a monk of the Soto Zen school. He has been director of the Moscow Zen
Centre since 2010, and held regular meditation sessions at his home.
According to the Investigative Committee charging decision of 16 October
2024, seen by Forum 18, the case against Vasilyev is based on an
English-language Facebook post
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
"Putin rejected Christmas armistice. His rockets are right now shelling
peaceful Ukrainian cities and towns. Only yesterday 16 people died in
Kherson, where my father's family lives. Or lived? Millions of Ukrainians
are now without electricity and water supply."
Vasilyev made this Facebook post, and others on VKontakte which led to an
earlier administrative conviction, "solely out of religious conviction", he
told Forum 18 through his lawyer
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
added that he is "not a politician and is engaged only in religion".
Vasilyev has been in detention since 22 June 2024, initially in Moscow's
Kapotnya prison, then in Matrosskaya Tishina. On 15 February 2025, he was
placed in solitary confinement (kartser) for 15 days as punishment for
failing to walk with his hands behind his back as he and his cellmates
returned from the bathhouse. His cellmates also received terms of solitary
confinement, but Vasilyev's was the longest, "despite the fact that this
was his first violation", human rights monitoring group OVD-Info noted on
17 February
(https://ovd.info/express-news
In November 2024, Vasilyev also reported problems with sending and
receiving letters – a member of detention centre staff eventually told
him that using the expression "political prisoners" in correspondence was
"not allowed, because we do not have political prisoners in Russia. We just
have prisoners."
Forum 18 wrote to the head of Matrosskaya Tishina prison, Andrey Selyunin,
on 11 April to ask:
- why Vasilyev had been put in solitary confinement for such a long time
for a minor infringement of the rules;
- and why his letters had been delayed or not delivered because of the
expression "political prisoners".
Forum 18 had received no response by the end of the working day in Moscow
of 16 April.
Vasilyev's address in detention:
107076 g. Moskva
ul. Matrosskaya Tishina 18
FKU Sledstvenniy izolyator No. 1 UFSIN Rossii po g. Moskve
Moscow Region: Pentecostal pastor still in detention, investigation ongoing
On 15 April, Balashikha City Court in Moscow Region extended Pastor Nikolay
Romanyuk's pre-trial detention for a third time, on this occasion until 17
June. Despite his poor health (he has suffered a mini-stroke while behind
bars) and his age (62), three different judges have so far refused to
release him under house arrest to await trial. It remains unknown when his
case will reach court.
Nikolay Nikolayevich Romanyuk (born 15 August 1962) is facing prosecution
for a sermon (https://www.forum18.org/archi
at Holy Trinity Pentecostal Church in Balashikha on 25 September 2022 (the
first Sunday after President Vladimir Putin announced the "partial
mobilisation" of Russian army reservists). In the sermon he called on
fellow Christians not to take part in the war against Ukraine.
The service was livestreamed on the church's YouTube channel and the
recording subsequently made available on YouTube and VKontakte.
Investigators carried out armed raids on Romanyuk's and several other
church members' homes (https://www.forum18.org/archi
on 18 October 2024, as well as at the church itself and on church property
in Volokolamsk.
During the raid on Romanyuk's home, armed officials struck him on the side
of the head (https://www.forum18.org/archi
fluid to leak from his ear, his family alleges. No official is known to
have been punished for this torture.
Under the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
(https://www.ohchr.org/en/inst
Russia is obliged both to arrest any person suspected on good grounds of
having committed, instigated or acquiesced to torture "or take other legal
measures to ensure his [sic] presence", and also to try them under criminal
law which makes "these offences punishable by appropriate penalties which
take into account their grave nature".
At other addresses, armed officers forced people to lie on the floor for
hours, held them at gunpoint, and confiscated digital devices and bank
cards.
Romanyuk subsequently became the first person to be charged under Criminal
Code Article 280.4 for opposing Russia's war in Ukraine from a religious
perspective. This punishes "Public calls to implement activities directed
against the security of the Russian Federation, or to obstruct the exercise
by government bodies and their officials of their powers to ensure the
security of the Russian Federation" – in Pastor Romanyuk's case "with the
use of mass media, or electronic, or information and telecommunication
networks, including the internet" (Part 2, Paragraph 'c').
Forum 18 has repeatedly sent enquiries to the Federal Investigative
Committee, the Moscow Region Investigative Committee, and the Moscow Region
branch of the FSB security service, asking:
- in what way Pastor Romanyuk's sermon threatened state security;
- why he is being kept in detention;
- whether any criminal or administrative cases have been opened against any
other church members;
- and why officials deemed it necessary to carry out armed raids on their
homes.
Forum 18 had received no response by the end of the working day in Moscow
Region of 16 April.
Investigators had Pastor Romanyuk placed in detention for an initial period
of two months at a court hearing on 20 October 2024. Judges have extended
his detention every two months since. Romanyuk has appealed unsuccessfully
against every extension at Moscow City Court.
Investigators have not questioned Romanyuk since January, lawyer Anatoly
Pchelintsev of the Slavic Centre for Law and Justice, who has been
following the case, wrote on his Telegram channel (https://t.me/advocatavp)
on 16 April, so "I want to understand why he, a far from young man, is
being kept in custody, where he is losing his last health". Pchelintsev
noted that defendants should be kept in detention only in exceptional
circumstances, and that, from the point of view of evidence, the case is
relatively straightforward, so should not be lasting this long.
The detention hearings "have similar features", Romanyuk's son-in-law and
fellow pastor Roman Zhukov noted on his Telegram channel
(https://t.me/zametki_o_zhizni
monotonously and without a drop of creativity, the investigators say the
same thing about the work they've done .. Time after time, with horror in
their eyes, they tell [the court] what a dangerous criminal Romanyuk is,
and why he should remain under the watchful eye of [prison service]
representatives, locked in a [detention centre] cell. Time after time,
independent judges do not see an objective reason to transfer an elderly
man to house arrest. All this looks like a poorly staged performance, in
which each of the participants knows their role."
"Dad is not guilty of anything! At the moment, he is not a convict, he is
simply locked up, tormented and exhausted of spiritual and physical
strength," his daughter Svetlana Zhukova wrote on her Telegram channel
(https://t.me/s/zhu4ka_sveta) on 16 April.
"If you only knew what periods of languor he sometimes goes through – his
health worsens, he can hardly eat anything, sleeps poorly. Just a couple of
weeks ago, he lost another 7-8 kilograms in a week and a half. He wrote us
little letters then, in which he said how he dreams of going to heaven.
Literally saying goodbye to us. It is very hard! .. Then – a period of
inspiration, joy, cheerfulness. For how long? I don't know. These 'swings'
are just terribly exhausting."
At the detention hearing on 13 February, the judge permitted Romanyuk to
speak. He said that "war is always bad, and God's word does not allow us to
kill people! It does not matter on whose side, in which country! For this
reason, our country has alternative [civilian] service, a legal one!",
Zhukova reported on her Telegram channel. "Dad loves his country, loves the
Russian people with all his heart, and has served people all his life. And
he remains true to his convictions and the evangelical position."
Pastor Romanyuk's address in pre-trial detention:
142412, g. Noginsk
ul. 1-ya Revsobraniy 17
FKU Sledstvenniy izolyator No. 11 UFSIN Rossii po Moskovskoy oblasti
(END)
More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Russia
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
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(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Forum 18's compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
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(https://www.forum18.org/archi
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