Russia: New reports about religious freedom violations “only scratch the surface”

Posted on August 8, 2023 by Pastor Foley

Religious freedom is continuing to decline sharply across the Russian Federation and occupied Ukraine, as authorities apply vague laws targeting extremism, terrorism, missionary activity, and undesirable organizations to ban various religious activities by Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, and other groups. That is the conclusion of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a bipartisan government commission tasked with making policy recommendations to US officials on religious freedom violations internationally. USCIRF published two new Russia Updates in July, following its 2023 Annual Report released in April which lists Russia as one of 17 countries it recommends the United States State Department should designate as “Countries of Particular Concern” due to the number and severity of religious freedom violations.

The special reports also call attention to religious freedom violations associated with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including Russian government prosecution of protestors opposing the war on religious grounds, as well as mistreatment of religious minorities in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia.

Dr Hyun Sook Foley, President of Voice of the Martyrs Korea, says her organization welcomes the international attention the USCIRF reports bring to religious freedom violations by Russian authorities but says the reports “only scratch the surface”. “The reports by USCIRF and others highlight the high profile cases of religious discrimination involving government allegations of extremism, terrorism, and anti-state activity against religious groups,” says Representative Foley. “But far more common—and in our opinion, far more concerning—are the surging number of much less well-known cases where ordinary Russian Christians who are doing ordinary Christian activities end up fined or imprisoned by ordinary police and judges applying ordinary Russian laws to stop them.”

Representative Foley says those cases are typically too low-profile to appear in religious freedom reports by USCIRF and other watchdog groups but are in her organization’s view more representative of the day-to-day discrimination being faced by an increasing number of Protestant Christians in Russia.

This year, Voice of the Martyrs Korea has profiled the following cases:

  • In separate cases in May, courts in Russia’s far northeast Chukotka Autonomous Okrug fined two Christians, Ryshkov Mikhail Ivanovich and Kovtun Nikolai Alekseevich, for personally distributing Bibles and Christian books, ruling that the distributions constituted illegal church recruitment and not personal evangelism.
  • Pastor Andrey Shirokov and a group of Moscow pastors were carrying humanitarian aid intended for fellow believers in the Luhansk region when Pastor Shirokov was detained on April 21 at the Dovzhanka checkpoint southeast of the city of Luhansk. He pled not guilty to the charge of petty hooliganism but was sentenced to 12 days of detention by the court in Novoshakhtinsk.
Pastor Andrey Shirokov with his wife following his release (photo from Telegram channel Mirt)  
  • Vyacheslav Koldiaev was released from prison in Arkhangelsk, Russia on March 3 after serving a two-year sentence on a charge of alleged “use of violence dangerous to life or health against a representative of the authorities”. The case gained widespread attention among Christians around the world when video evidence exonerating Koldiaev was apparently ignored by the court, leading to Koldiaev’s conviction on May 13, 2021. Koldiaev had been part of a human chain of supporters surrounding the Baptist Church in Archangelsk, Russia on September 24, 2020 in an effort by the church to prevent a court-ordered demolition crew from tearing down a portion of the church’s building.
Vyacheslav Koldiaev receives flowers from children at the Baptist church in Arkhangelsk, Russia, following his release from prison (Source: Портал Верность) 
  • On September 1, 2022 in Armavir, authorities came to the workplace of a Christian, Maslenik Stanislav, and accused him carrying out missionary work by distributing copies of the newspaper “Do You Believe?” to participants in a key-making workshop he led. They searched the premises and seized eight newspapers. The Armavir city court found him guilty and fined him 5,000 rubles (approx. 90,000KRW).
The “Do You Believe” newspaper that Stefan Valery, Pastor Vladimir Kharchenko and Maslenik Stanislav were accused of distributing. 

Representative Foley says that the reason stories like these are not included in religious freedom reports is that the Christians involved do not seek to publicize their plight but instead focus on continuing their ministry. “No matter what the Russian government does, these ordinary Christians simply continue their service to the Lord,” says Representative Foley. She says that is why her organization tells the stories of these ordinary Christians. “Our primary goal isn’t to get governments to pressure other governments. Our primary goal is to tell these stories in order to encourage Christians in Russia, Ukraine, and around the world to remember that true freedom—freedom in Christ—can’t be given by governments, and it can’t be taken away by them either.”

Representative Foley says that the ordinary Christians facing persecution in Russia and Occupied Ukraine should be regarded by Christians around the world not as victims but as models of the ordinary Christian life to be emulated by other believers. “The USCIRF reports on persecution are recommendations to the US government,” says Representative Foley. “Our reports on persecution are recommendations to Christians around the world. Our recommendation is: Imitate these persecuted brothers and sisters! No matter what restrictions your government or your workplace or your family tries to place on the practice of your faith, the Lord Jesus is greater still. He will equip you for faithful witness even under the harshest circumstances. The Christians in Russia and occupied Ukraine are examples of the Lord’s care even in the valley of the shadow of death. So don’t be afraid!”

Individuals interested in learning more about Voice of the Martyrs Korea’s work with evangelical Christians in Russia and occupied Ukraine can visit https://vomkorea.com/en/project/russia-ministry/.

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Wife, son of Chinese human rights attorney who died suspiciously escape to the US

Posted on July 18, 2023 by Pastor Foley

The wife and son of Dr. Li Baiguang, the Chinese human rights attorney who died under suspicious circumstances in 2018, have escaped to the United States, according to the Christian nonprofit groups ChinaAid and Voice of the Martyrs Korea.

Hanmei “Hannah” Xu and Qingxin “Pure Heart” Li arrived in the United States last month and are presently seeking asylum, according to representatives of the two groups.

Hanmei “Hannah” Xu (third from right) and Qingxin “Pure Heart” Li (second from left) holding signs as they are surrounded by volunteers from China Aid upon their arrival in the US.

Dr. Li Baiguang, known for his self-described “ant strategy” of traveling around China to take up hundreds of individual cases defending the religious freedom and human rights of ordinary citizens, rose to prominence internationally after receiving an award from the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy in 2008 and being invited for three visits with then-U.S. President George W. Bush. Both his wife and young son were summoned to the police station for interrogation by Chinese authorities in Summer 2015. In October 2017, Dr. Li reported to international observers that he had been abducted, beaten, and threatened with dismemberment by Chinese officials in Zhejiang province for defending farmers whose land had been seized by the government. Then on February 25, 2018, Dr. Li was pronounced dead at a Chinese government military hospital in Nanjing, hours after allegedly checking in for a stomach complaint. The hospital said he had bled to death due to a liver condition. But Dr. Li, who was 49 at the time of his death, was reported by friends and colleagues to have been in good health immediately prior to the announcement of his death.

“Since Dr. Li’s sudden death in early 2018, his wife, Hanmei Xu, has been closely controlled and monitored without freedom of movement by agents arranged by the Communist Party of China in order to prevent her from having contact with anyone overseas,” says the Rev. Dr. Bob Fu, the founder and President of US-based ChinaAid and a long-time friend of the family.

Dr. Li Baiguang (right), Chinese human rights attorney known for his “little ant” strategy of traveling across China to defend the human rights and religious freedoms of ordinary citizens, died under suspicious circumstances at a military hospital in eastern Jiangsu province, China, on February 26, 2018.

Hanmei Xu released the following statement: “After much suffering in China, with the help of ChinaAid and Voice of the Martyrs Korea, we are glad to finally arrive in the USA, land of freedom. We thank all brothers, sisters, and other friends of the international community who have been praying and caring about Li Baiguang and our whole family.”

According to Voice of the Martyrs Korea co-founder and President Dr. Hyun Sook Foley, ChinaAid arranged for the departure of Dr. Li’s family from China and is coordinating their resettlement and asylum process in the US while Voice of the Martyrs Korea is providing the finances and assisting in trauma care.

“Our focus at this point is on providing comfort, support, and stability for the family,” says Foley, who teaches Bible-based trauma recovery strategies to Christians who have experienced persecution for their faith. “We had the privilege of teaching persecution recovery strategies to Dr. Li, and now we have the privilege and heavy responsibility of putting those same strategies into practice with his wife and son.”

Dr. Li was born in 1968 in a mountain village in Hunan Province in south central China as the youngest of seven children. After graduating from Beijing University with a Ph.D on constitutional law, he taught at Hainan University for a year before being arrested for his growing involvement in dissident circles promoting democracy. He subsequently started a publishing business envisioning public education in democracy through the introduction to Chinese readers of books translated from the western liberal democratic tradition. However, he reported that his life was drastically changed by reading and translating a book about the persecution and perseverance of the French Protestant Huguenots in the 17th century.

“He publicly professed his faith in Christ in 2005 and gave up his ‘grand ideas’ about government reform and constitutional change in favor of what he called an ‘ant strategy’”, says ChinaAid’s President Bob Fu.

In his papers and presentations, Dr. Li wrote, “Recently I’ve had a realization: I’m willing to become an ant. I want to take the rights and freedoms in the books and, through case after case, bring them into the real world bit by bit. This is my personal stance. The path to this is legal procedure. In summer, the ant gathers food. Today, I’m also transporting food under the framework of rights defense, and in doing so accumulating experience and results for the arrival of the day.”

Dr. Li Baiguang (second from left) during one of three invitations to visit then-U.S. President George W. Bush.

He patiently and methodically followed each and every step of the legal procedure according to the letter of the law, according to Fu.

In a speech at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. in 2017, Dr. Li anticipated a major crackdown on human rights and religious freedom was looming. “From this point forward, human rights in China will enter its darkest period,” he said. Fu reported that Dr. Li remained optimistic due to his Christian faith. “He quoted Romans 13,” says Fu, “declaring ‘The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.’”

Though he died a few months later under suspicious circumstances, Voice of the Martyrs Korea’s Dr. Hyun Sook Foley says the safe arrival of Dr. Li’s wife and son in the US is a divine sign that his optimism will be vindicated. “Psalm 146:9 says, ‘The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin’,” says Representative Foley. “The Lord has upheld Hannah and Pure Heart since February 2018. In the end, the little ant’s patient, persistent fight against wickedness will be upheld by the Lord as well.”

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Russian courts rule that personal evangelism is an illegal form of church recruitment

Posted on July 4, 2023 by Pastor Foley

In separate cases in May, courts in Russia’s far northeast Chukotka Autonomous Okrug fined two Christians for personally distributing Bibles and Christian books, ruling that the distributions constituted illegal church recruitment and not personal evangelism.

In separate cases in May, two Christians were fined for personally distributing the Christian books shown here, along with other Christian materials.

The two Christians, Ryshkov Mikhail Ivanovich from the easternmost Russian city of Anadyr and Kovtun Nikolai Alekseevich from the Arctic port town of Pevek, have each filed appeals.

According to Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr Hyun Sook Foley, the cases represent a new level of restriction on personal evangelistic activities for Russian Christians.

“This is the first time that Russian courts have ruled that individual Christians handing out Christian Bibles, books, and tracts in public is an illegal form of church recruitment,” says Representative Foley. “There are previous cases where courts have fined Christians for doing various Christian activities, but those rulings associated the offense with churches’ failure to register with the government. But in these two rulings, no mention is made of the registration status of the defendants’ churches. Instead, the courts criminalized the public distribution of Christian literature, ruling that it is not an act of personal evangelism.”

In the first case, Ryshkov Mikhail Ivanovich was fined for violating Article 24.2 of the Federal Law No. 125-FZ, “On Freedom of Conscience and on Religious Associations”. “On March 11 this year he and a group of friends distributed calendars with the title ‘What God Promised’ along with the Christian books ‘The Most Important Truths’ and ‘Stop and Ask’ and other Christian tracts in the city of Anadyr,” says Representative Foley. “No authorities stopped or interfered with them at that time, but six days later police came to the address shown on the materials and accused him of ‘distributing information about the doctrine of a religious organization among the inhabitants … in order to get new members’.”

Representative Foley says that in the Anadyr district court on May 18, Ryshkov Mikhail Ivanovich pled not guilty. “He explained that he had not distributed the materials to recruit people to his church but to lead people to salvation,” says Representative Foley. “He cited Article 28 of the Russian Constitution, which says that every citizen is guaranteed the freedom to spread their religious beliefs and act in accordance with them.”

According to Representative Foley, the court found Mikhail Ivanovich Ryshkov guilty and fined him 10,000 rubles (approximately 150,000 KRW).

In the second case, Kovtun Nikolai Alekseevich handed out copies of a book called ‘25 Favorite Stories from the Bible’ while at a store in Pevek in March. According to Representative Foley, he also was charged under Article 24.2 of the Federal Law No. 125 -FZ, with authorities contending that distributing the Bibles was an illegal form of church recruitment.

“At the Chaunsky district court on May 31, 2023, Kovtun Nikolai Alekseevich pled not guilty,” says Representative Foley. “His defense was that the Bible is the word of God, not a church recruitment tool. It leads people to God, not just to church. He said that in distributing the Bible stories he was not acting on behalf of any religious organization but as a citizen of the Russian Federation who has the legal right to share his faith.” But according to Dr Foley, the court found him guilty and fined him 5,000 rubles (approximately 75,000 KRW).

Representative Foley says the cases illustrate the increasing difficulties facing evangelical Protestant believers in Russia. “The Russian Orthodox Church exercises strong spiritual as well as political and legal influence across all of Russia,” says Representative Foley. “Where evangelical Protestant practice is different than Russian Orthodox practice, there are growing difficulties for the evangelical practice. For example, in Russian Orthodoxy, evangelism and distribution of Christian literature would indeed be forms of building the church. But for evangelical Protestants, coming to faith in Christ and joining a specific church organization are separate matters. These court cases are just the latest examples showing Russian courts operating according to the Russian Orthodox understanding and criminalizing the Protestant one. It is a trend that Christians around the world should bring to the Lord in prayer.”

Representative Foley says Voice of the Martyrs Korea is also calling for prayers for the Christians and for the judges who will be involved as the two cases are reviewed in appeals courts.

Individuals interested in learning more about Voice of the Martyrs Korea’s work with evangelical Russian believers can visit https://vomkorea.com/en/project/russia-ministry/.

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