Paul Goble
Staunton, Aug. 28 – Russia is experiencing a new wave of sectarianism, one that isn’t limited to traditional religious sects – about 1.5 million Russians are members of these – but includes other non-religious groups – who have attracted many times that number – Elena Rychkova says.
These new groups, specialists on them tell the Nakanune journalist, take the form of business training sessions, occult practices and psychological groups and threaten the health and wellbeing of many Russians and the national security of the Russian Federation (nakanune.ru/articles/123859/).
Often, she reports, the government is “powerless” to do anything about them. There are no laws which define precisely what constitutes a sect and the leaders of these groups typically “cleverly mask themselves under legal organizations,” including on occasion state structures, in addition to underground ones.
The latest government effort, a ban on a non-existent international satanist movement (https://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/07/banning-groups-that-dont-exist.html), is a case in point. It may give some people the impression that the Kremlin is actually doing something, but in fact, it highlights the inability of the Putin regime to act effectively in this area.
But the government is really worried about the sects, in the first instance because those who join them typically have fewer children than their coevals who don’t. According to one estimate, sect membership is keeping as many as 50,000 new babies from being born in the Russian Federation.
The government is also alarmed and perhaps even more so, Rychkova continues, by the rapid spread of these new sectarians beyond Moscow and the other biggest cities into smaller population centers. Linked together by the internet, these groups form a potential opposition network that could challenge the regime.
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