Source: www.forum18.org
Date: December 10, 2025
https://www.forum18.org/archiv
By Victoria Arnold, Forum 18
A Moscow Buddhist is due to stand trial a second time on charges of
distributing "false information" about the Russian Armed Forces, after an
appeal court overturned his conviction and 8-year prison sentence. At his
original trial, Ilya Vasilyev had asked for a public defender. The judge's
refusal to allow this constituted a violation of his right to a defence,
Moscow City Court found on 22 October.
Prosecutors accused Vasilyev, director of the Moscow Zen Centre, 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 d) for an English-language Facebook post about a Russian missile
attack on the Ukrainian city of Kherson in 2022. The post was made "solely
out of religious conviction", his lawyer told Forum 18 earlier (see below).
At present, Vasilyev – who is now 52 - is still in detention at Moscow's
Matrosskaya Tishina Investigation Prison (see below).
After his initial conviction, the court press secretary refused to explain
to Forum 18 why the Judge considered that such a long custodial term was
necessary, and in what way Vasilyev could be considered dangerous (see
below).
On 25 November, 63-year-old Protestant pastor Nikolay Romanyuk appealed
unsuccessfully at Moscow Regional Court against his criminal conviction for
opposing Russia's war in Ukraine on religious grounds. He is now awaiting
transfer to a prison colony to begin serving his 4-year sentence (see
below).
Prosecutors too challenged the original verdict seeking a harsher verdict.
Moscow Regional Prosecutor's Office did not respond to Forum 18's question
as to why prosecutors were challenging the lower court's verdict (see
below).
Balashikha City Court had found Pastor Romanyuk guilty on 3 September under
Criminal Code Article 280.4 ("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") for preaching that church members
should not fight in Ukraine (see below).
The Investigative Committee opened a case
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed
Forces" against Orthodox journalist Kseniya Luchenko. Investigators
launched the case for a Telegram post in which she condemned a Russian
missile strike on a Kyiv children's hospital in July 2024, and contrasted
this with the Russian state and Moscow Patriarchate's promotion of
so-called "traditional values".
Although Luchenko left Russia in 2022, a Moscow court issued a detention
order (https://www.forum18.org/archi
absentia on 24 November. Investigators had already had her placed on the
Interior Ministry's Federal Wanted List, the Federal Financial Monitoring
Service (Rosfinmonitoring) "List of Terrorists and Extremists", and the
Justice Ministry's register of "foreign agents". If she returns to Russia,
she will be immediately arrested.
Criminal, administrative convictions for opposing war on religious grounds
Since February 2022, courts have sentenced four people to imprisonment and
fined three (https://www.forum18.org/archi
criminal charges for opposing Russia's war against Ukraine on religious
grounds. Investigators have also opened four criminal cases against people
who have left Russia (https://www.forum18.org/archi
(including Kseniya Luchenko), and have placed them on the Federal Wanted
List.
Individuals also continue to face prosecution under Administrative Code
Article 20.3.3 ("Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed
Forces of the Russian Federation") for opposing the war in Ukraine from a
religious perspective.
Most recently, Slavyansk City Court in Krasnodar Region registered a case
against independent Orthodox priest Fr Iona Sigida under Administrative
Code Article 20.3.3, Part 1 on 8 December. He is due to appear in court on
23 December (see forthcoming F18News article).
A St Petersburg court fined Fr Grigory Okhanov, who is a priest of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate and formerly a Moscow Patriarchate lay reader,
30,000 Roubles on 24 September (see forthcoming F18News article).
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.
The Justice Ministry has also added 13 religious leaders and activists to
its register of "foreign agents"
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
related to their opposition to the invasion of Ukraine.
Vasilyev: Moscow Buddhist leader to undergo retrial
Moscow Buddhist leader Ilya Vladimirovich Vasilyev (born 9 December 1973)
is due to undergo a retrial, after appeal judges at Moscow City Court
decided that the first-instance court had violated his right to a defence
by not allowing his requested public defender [zashchitnik] to participate
in proceedings.
It is unknown when the new trial is likely to begin. Both Moscow City Court
and the city's Preobrazhensky District Court directed Forum 18 to the
Moscow court system's online portal. This records that the district court
registered Vasilyev's case again on 2 December, but has so far listed no
hearings.
On 25 June 2025, the district court found Vasilyev guilty under Criminal
Code Article 207.3 ("Public dissemination of knowingly false information
about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation"), Part 2,
Paragraph d ("for reasons of political, ideological, racial, national or
religious hatred or enmity, or for reasons of hatred or enmity against any
social group").
The judge sentenced Vasilyev to 8 years' imprisonment
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
4-year ban on "administering websites". Had this entered legal force, it
would have been the longest known prison term for opposing Russia's war in
Ukraine on religious grounds.
Forum 18 asked Moscow's Preobrazhensky District Court shortly after
sentencing why Judge Valentina Lebedeva had decided that such a long
custodial term was necessary, and in what way Vasilyev could be considered
dangerous. Court press secretary Mariya Martynenko responded
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
"have the right to comment on the legality and validity of court decisions
(orders) or the individual actions of a judge".
Prosecutors had charged Vasilyev based on an English-language Facebook post
of 25 December 2022
(https://www.facebook.com/phot
"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. The picture is called
'Christmas 2022'."
Included in the post was a painting by Ukrainian-born artist Iriney
Yurchuk, depicting a nativity scene
(https://www.facebook.com/phot
a bombed-out block of flats.
According to the prosecution, with this post Vasilyev deliberately
(https://zona.media/article/20
number of people" and "created the appearance of illegal activity that
violated international law" by the Russian armed forces and government. The
prosecution claimed he was acting out of "political hatred, expressed in a
'disdainful, unfriendly, hostile, aggressive' attitude towards the
authorities".
Vasilyev made the Facebook post, as well as others on the VKontakte social
network which led to a May 2023 administrative prosecution, "solely out of
religious conviction", he told Forum 18
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
November 2024. He added that he is "not a politician and is engaged only in
religion".
Vasilyev: Pre-trial detention extended for 3 more months
A panel of three judges at Moscow City Court overturned the verdict on 22
October 2025, and ordered that a different judge at Preobrazhensky District
Court should re-examine Ilya Vasilyev's case. According to their written
decision, seen by Forum 18, they did this because, early in the
first-instance court proceedings, Vasilyev had requested that an
acquaintance of his be permitted to act as his public defender
[zashchitnik], alongside his lawyer, and Preobrazhensky District Court
refused this on the grounds that the acquaintance did not have legal
qualifications.
The appeal judges noted that, according to the Criminal Procedural Code, a
defendant may request the participation of a public defender from among
their relatives or any other persons, "not instead of, but as well as, a
professional lawyer".
The court's refusal to allow this limited Vasilyev's rights under Article
45, Part 2 of the Constitution. This states that everyone has the right "to
defend their rights and freedoms by all means not prohibited by law".
Courts, the judges stated, are "obliged to provide the accused with the
opportunity to defend themselves by all means and methods not prohibited by
law".
There is also no requirement that a public defender should hold legal
qualifications. The requirement is only that the individual should be able
and willing "to exercise, in accordance with the procedure established by
law, the protection of the right and interests of the accused and to
provide them with legal assistance during the proceedings".
The appeal judges therefore ruled that Vasilyev's case should be sent for a
retrial before a new judge at Preobrazhensky District Court, "during which
the aforementioned violation must be remedied". They also extended
Vasilyev's detention period for three months, until 22 January 2026.
Vasilyev has been in detention since 22 June 2024, initially in Moscow's
Kapotnya prison, then in Matrosskaya Tishina Investigation Prison. In early
September 2025, he was briefly transferred to Investigation Prison No. 3 in
Moscow. He was subsequently returned to Matrosskaya Tishina.
Vasilyev's address in detention:
107076 g. Moskva
ul. Matrosskaya Tishina 18
FKU Sledstvenniy izolyator No. 1 UFSIN Rossii po g. Moskve
Romanyuk: Imprisoned pastor appeals unsuccessfully against conviction
On 25 November 2025, Protestant pastor Nikolay Romanyuk appealed
unsuccessfully against his criminal conviction and 4-year prison sentence
for criticising Russia's war against Ukraine from a religious perspective
in a Sunday sermon. He is now awaiting transfer to a general-regime prison
colony.
"Friends, remember Pastor Nikolay in your prayers," his son-in-law and
fellow pastor Roman Zhukov wrote on his Telegram channel
(https://t.me/zametki_o_zhizni
is not the end. We continue to fight, both prayerfully and practically."
Prosecutors also lodged a challenge to the verdict, seeking a harsher
sentence, according to Romanyuk's daughter Svetlana Zhukova
(https://t.me/zhu4ka_sveta/571
Judge Natalya Duvanova of Moscow Regional Court upheld neither Pastor
Romanyuk's nor the Prosecutor's appeals.
Investigators and prosecutors had accused Pastor Romanyuk 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"
(Criminal Code Article 280.4) "with the use of his official position", and
– because the sermon was livestreamed and uploaded to YouTube – "with
the use of mass media, or electronic, or information and telecommunication
networks, including the internet" (Part 2 Paragraphs b and v).
On appeal, Judge Duvanova removed the latter, internet-related charge from
the indictment, leaving only the charge of "use of his official position",
but left the guilty verdict and sentence unchanged.
Romanyuk: 4-year prison term, plus 3-year website administration ban
Balashikha City Court sentenced
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Romanyuk (born 15 August 1962) on 3 September 2025 to 4 years'
imprisonment, to be followed by a 3-year ban on administering websites.
Prosecutors had argued that Pastor Romanyuk had called on others to
obstruct the work of military registration and enlistment offices in a
sermon he had given at Holy Trinity Pentecostal Church in September 2022,
on the first Sunday after the announcement of "partial mobilisation". In
the sermon, which was livestreamed, Pastor Romanyuk said that Russia's
invasion of Ukraine was "not our war".
"We do not bless those who go there [to war]", Pastor Romanyuk continued.
"[Those] who are taken by force, we do not bless them, but we pray that
they are rescued from there. There are different legal ways to do this."
Forum 18 wrote to Moscow Regional Prosecutor's Office on 21 November 2025,
before the appeal hearing, asking why prosecutors were challenging the
lower court's verdict. Forum 18 had received no response by the end of the
working day in Moscow Region of 10 December.
Romanyuk: "I am prepared to suffer for my Christian beliefs, but don't
attribute to me what I didn't say"
In Pastor Nikolay Romanyuk's 2022 sermon
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
are offered a hit, when you are offered a bottle of alcohol or you are
given a summons to send you to combat – this is the same sin, and the
same drug, and the same Satan.. Find me in the Old Testament even a hint
that we could somehow participate.. It was written in our doctrine that we
are pacifists and cannot participate in this. It is our right to profess
this on the basis of Holy Scripture."
According to the exchange of arguments [preniya] (shared by lawyer Anatoly
Pchelintsev on his Telegram channel (https://t.me/advocatavp/449))
Ivshin, a member of the National Guard and parishioner of the church,
stated that the sermon had "called for not accepting summons [to serve in
the Armed Forces] and not appearing at the meeting of the draft board", and
had "offended" other servicemen who attend the church. The only serviceman
he named, however, testified that he had not gone to the service on 25
September 2022.
None of the other witnesses who had been present at the service claimed
that Pastor Romanyuk had made any such calls, and two parishioners – an
army lieutenant colonel and an employee of the Emergency Situations
Ministry – testified that Romanyuk had never told them that they should
leave military service.
"My speech as a direct participant, documented as such, was not
corroborated, but the speech of the false witness [Ivshin] was! How should
this be understood? I am prepared to suffer for my Christian beliefs, but
don't attribute to me what I didn't say!", Pastor Romanyuk said via
videolink during his appeal, according to Roman Zhukov.
(Zhukov was not allowed inside the courtroom because he was a witness in
the case, but commented on his Telegram channel
(https://t.me/zametki_o_zhizni
from the corridor.)
Romanyuk: "Dad is awaiting transfer to the penal colony"
"There's no hope for this appeal, of course", Pastor Nikolay Romanyuk's
daughter Svetlana Zhukova commented on her Telegram channel
(https://t.me/zhu4ka_sveta/571
hearing. "So Dad is awaiting transfer to the penal colony. The fact that
they've waited so long for the appeal is absolutely normal; it's what
usually happens. (We're still learning about these 'usuals')."
Zhukova added: "People in pretrial detention facilities really look forward
to this transfer, as it's a completely different way of life from how it is
at present – just being confined within four walls. There [in a colony],
you can walk about more, interact more with people, even go and do some
sort of work. Dad is no exception; he's also looking forward to it.
Surprisingly, he's not afraid at all, even joking that this will be a
second chapter to his ministry."
Pastor Romanyuk suffers from hypertension, cerebrovascular disease,
psoriasis, and spinal problems (for which he had been receiving treatment
before his arrest). He experienced a micro-stroke
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
December 2024, which caused him to be hospitalised in an intensive care
unit.
Pastor Romanyuk's family is concerned about how the journey to a prison
colony (which may take weeks or even months) could affect him. "We're
worried, of course," Zhukova noted on Telegram
(https://t.me/zhu4ka_sveta/571
him, as the actual transfer there often takes place in very difficult and
unacceptable conditions, even for a healthy young person. Not to mention
[for] Dad, at his age, with his history of strokes and many other ailments.
His blood pressure is probably very high right now because of the weather,
and he's feeling physically unwell."
After the appeal hearing, court officials permitted Pastor Romanyuk's
family to speak with him briefly over videolink. "The connection was bad,
everything was blurry, and it was hard to hear. But Dad's voice was strong,
his spirit was uplifted – he was so dear to us! Unbroken, uncompromising
in his understanding of God's Word!" (END)
More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Russia
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
For background information see Forum 18's Russia religious freedom survey
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Forum 18's compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
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