Albert Ratkin News Today

Former head of Baptist Union flees abroad as the first Protestant charged for opposing the war in Ukraine. His level of support back home is mixed.

Despite the official support for Russias invasion shown by many religious leaders, most notably those in the Moscow Patriarchate, small numbers of clergy and laypeople in Russia continue to protest for explicitly religious reasons against the renewed war in Ukraine. They often face detention, prosecution, and the loss of their jobs in consequence. One, Fr Ioann Burdin, told Forum 18 he is appealing against being fined "so that life is not a bed of roses for the authorities and judges".