RussiaReligionWatch

Riot police and Orthodox ultranationalists shut down a 40-year-old folk Maslenitsa festival for being "pagan." Dozens defied the ban anyway, trudging through snowdrifts to celebrate. New piece on Bakshevskaya Maslenitsa and the Sorok Sorokov: russiareligionwatch.substack.com/p/a-pagan-even…

The Russian Orthodox Church is slowly but surely gaining a foothold in Africa. Experts say Russia is using its expansion as a form of ideological soft power. dw.com/en/russian-ort…

More than half of Russian citizens (55%) said they never attend religious services - the highest figure recorded to date and the 1st time since 1997 that the proportion of those who do not attend church has exceeded the number of worship service attendees. ua.news/en/world/chast…

A Complicated Legacy: Remembering Patriarch Filaret: kyivpost.com/opinion/72386

More than two-thirds of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM, otherwise known as “child pornography”) are made at home, with the victims’ biological father most likely to be the primary perpetrator. rlstollar.com/2025/08/29/who…

Patriarch Filaret, who fought for an independent Ukrainian Orthodox church, dies at 97: cruxnow.com/church-in-euro…

Which Way, Russian Woman? The Moscow Patriarchate occupies March 8: russiareligionwatch.substack.com/p/which-way-ru…

Unchecked freedom for homeschooling parents has led to hundreds of gruesome and horrific deaths of homeschooled children. So, of course I have a problem with that. Anyone who actually cares about child abuse will, too.

Russian MP Milonov proposes banning foreign travel for Russians A State Duma deputy said Russians should vacation inside the country and called all-inclusive trips abroad “for cattle.” “Now is not the time to travel abroad. We have Vyborg! We have St. Petersburg!” Milonov said. Just a perfect proposal.

На Первом канале детский хор исполнил песню о полезности отключении интернета, потому что «в реальности друзей рядом видеть веселей». Песенка задорная: «не испортил мой обед монитора синий свет». Не хотим, не хотим — Не поймаешь сети. Не сидим, не сидим В вашем интернете.

Belarus' Alexander Lukashenko says Trump has invited him to Mar-a-Lago to discuss a "big deal" with the US. This would presumably bring his country in from the cold after years of sanctions over his repressions and help for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

In Russia: Girls who do not plan to have children will be sent to a psychologist to form "positive attitudes" towards childbirth - an official document from the Ministry of Health. Such a referral is possible if a girl indicates in the questionnaire during reproductive screening that she does not want to have children. State control of fodder machines.

Женщин, не планирующих детей, могут направлять к психологу — ТАСС Минздрав утвердил документ, согласно которому женщин, не планирующих рождение ребёнка, могут направлять на консультацию к психологу для «формирования положительных установок на рождение детей». Об этом сообщает ТАСС со ссылкой на соответствующий документ ведомства. Речь идёт о случаях, когда в ходе анкетирования в рамках репродуктивной диспансеризации женщина указывает, что не хочет иметь детей. Фото: ТАСС

You should appreciate the supreme irony of how the phase “special military operation” has entered the English language

The Russian government now prepping the population for a complete shutdown of the internet, citing "terrorism". A new narrative campaign has begun, no longer merely preparing Russians for loss of the last social media and messenger apps, but a complete shut down. State Duma deputy Svintsov on television today, selling it hard.

@PhD_Genie How’s your book coming along?

Write an academic horror story in six words or less, based on real-life experiences

Russian Orthodox icons have begun depicting participants in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine: theins.ru/en/news/290022

🚀 "Capturing the minds: The role of child deportation in maintaining Russian authority over Ukraine’s occupied territories" by @DrJadeMcGlynn & Anastasiia Romaniuk is the eighth article of our special issue on kidnapping - and OUT NOW: 🇺🇦 cambridge.org/core/journals/…

A religious scholar explained the Russian Orthodox Church's head's condolences over Khamenei's assassination. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow's condolences over the assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whom he called "a man of deep religious convictions," stem from the Russian Orthodox Church's particular sympathy for the Iranian theocracy. This is according to religious scholar Alexander Soldatov. He notes that Patriarch Kirill has repeatedly stated that the Moscow Patriarchate is "closer to Islam" than to Western Christianity. Furthermore, back in 1995, at the initiative of Kirill, among the many Islamic schools and movements, the Russian Orthodox Church chose Iranian Shiites for "theological dialogue." "On the internal level, the ideology known today as the 'Russian world' was developed by the World Russian People's Council founded by Kirill, while on the external level, a rapprochement with various fundamentalist and totalitarian forces began. One of these was the Shiite leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which offered its model of a theocratic state—the secret dream of Patriarch Kirill—as an alternative to Western globalization," writes Soldatov.

This is consistent with the “Russian world” ideology at the core of Russia’s war against Ukraine. These actions make no sense when viewed through the lens of “stopping NATO expansion,” but acquire coherence when understood as part of the “civilizational” war Russia is waging

UKRAINE 🇺🇦 A detailed new report by Mission Eurasia has revealed 'the near-complete dismantling of the Catholic presence' in Russian occupied territories It also says of the occupied regions: 'Catholic presence has been almost entirely eliminated: of the 15 Roman Catholic parishes that existed prior to occupation, only one remains, and of the 49 parishes of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, none remain'