Russian Mission Group Warns of Crackdown on Evangelicals

02/04/2012 Russia (CIC) – As protesters demanding more freedom and fair elections prepared to demonstrate in freezing temperatures in Moscow Saturday, February 4, a major Russian mission group warned of more difficulties for evangelical Christians and other, religious, minorities in Russia and other former Soviet Union nations.
“Even as demonstrations increase, protesters’ hold on religion and civil liberties appears to be slipping in the North Caucasus and Central Asia,” explained Russian Ministries in a statement to BosNewsLife.
“The situation in Russia has been building over the last several years, and is as much about religious liberty as it is about political freedom,” the group added.
Russian Ministries, which is involved in several aid and education projects and evangelism, told BosNewsLife that recent reports “document an alarming increase in limiting the freedoms of minority or dissenting religious perspectives across much of the post-Soviet region.”
It also said that Siberia, Russia, local courts have attempted to ban the publication of alternate religious books, calling adherents to Hare Krishna “madmen.” The group compared the situation with the Soviet era. “In Soviet times, cults were targeted for persecution, and evangelical Christians were purposefully labeled as followers of a cult.”
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