Putin’s War in Ukraine has Divided Russian Protestants and Reduced Change that They will be Added to ‘Traditional’ Religions There, ‘Horizontal Russia’ Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 23 – Russia’s 1.5 million Protestants are as divided about Putin’s war in Ukraine; but because of the nature of Protestantism, pastors and bishops of Protestant denominations have generally tread lightly either in their support of the war or their opposition lest they be removed by those who elected them, the Horizontal Russia news portal says.

            But both that caution and the long tradition of close contacts between Russian Protestants and their co-believers in Ukraine have angered the Kremlin and undermined the chances which seemed very good before 2014 for Protestantism to become the fifth “traditional” religion in Russia (semnasem.org/articles/2024/07/24/mezhdu-propagandoj-i-pisaniem-kak-vojna-v-ukraine-izmenila-zhizn-rossijskih-protestantov).

            That is no small thing because Russia’s Protestants who don’t identify as such unless they are active in the faith form roughly the same number as Russian Orthodox Christians who attend church and follow church rules. Thus, what the war has done has likely blocked any chance that Protestants will enjoy the state support and protection that the four traditional faiths do.

            And in some regions, such as Siberia and the Far East, where Protestants are especially numerous – and it is estimated that they now form as many as 10,000 congregations across the country – that means that large numbers of Christians are likely to be subject to increasing persecution by the Putin regime.