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Russian pastor Nikolai Romanyuk may serve up to six years in prison for opposing Putin’s war in Ukraine.

Deemed a threat to national security, Romanyuk was arrested in October under legislation targeting misinformation and disinformation.

Armed police raided Romanyuk’s home, along with the homes of seven other church members, after he preached a sermon denouncing mass murder.

According to Norwegian-based religious freedom watchdog Forum18, Romanyuk told his flock not to fight for Putin in Ukraine.

In the actual sermon shared on YouTube, the Pentecostal pastor from Balashikha – a region of Moscow – condemned abortion, and the corrosive moral decline hastened by LGBTism’s disordered love.

He also condemned state-sanctioned famines and war, like the Holodomor, and Putin’s Quixotian “it’s because of NATO and Nazis” offensive in Ukraine.

“Sin must be called sin, because the harvest is approaching,” Romanyuk exclaimed.

“Those who rattle their sabres; those who are ready to go and participate in mass murder, these are demons, these are abysses.”

“We do not, and will not say that a military man working in the Church does not have the right to salvation in the Church, but [in bearing the sword] he must know exactly what he is doing.” (Google translate)

Rauli Lehtonen, a close friend of Romanyuk, confirmed his arrest and detention, stating in a blog post,

“The criminal Kremlin regime continues to steadily increase the measure of its lawlessness.”

Romanyuk is being punished for “expressing his disagreement with the bandit, and cruel war that the Russian Federation is waging on the territory of Ukraine.”

“His entire family has gone through great psychological trauma today, but such searches and arrests in modern Russia are predictable and expected – to our great regret.”

Explaining some family history, Lehtonen said Romanyuk’s persecution at the hands of the state wasn’t new.

Romanyuk’s dad, a pastor in Moscow, was harassed by the Soviets.

His older brother, Vasily, who was also a pastor, “died several years ago under very strange circumstances, after their church building was demolished at night by bulldozers.”

Persecution

The laws used to imprison Pastor Romanyuk are known as Article 207 and 280.4. These came into effect in 2022.

As The Jurist explained, “penalties for spreading ‘knowingly false information’ include a fine, one year of corrective labour, and/or imprisonment for up to three years.”

In early 2024, these laws were expanded to allow for the ‘confiscation of property’ owned by anyone convicted of ‘disseminating fake news.’

While reports of Christians being persecuted in Ukraine under Zelenskyy tend to get more attention, Putin targeting non-Orthodox Christians often gets a free pass.

There are two reasons for this radio silence.

First, Putin’s grip on power and his control of information is enough to make Australia’s pro-censorship bureaucrats giddy with envy.

Second, among the “Putin is a victim” overdosing red-pilled Woke Right, the Russian dictator is styled as an anti-Woke warrior restoring Christendom.

Bizarre when you consider Putin has enlisted Hindu Nationalists, militant Muslims, as well as Marxists from Brazil, China, and North Korea in the bulldozing in of this new golden age.

When you look at the line-up of the BRICS economic alliance, that’s no exaggeration.

Judging by Putin’s internment of Romanyuk and his imprisonment of opposition leaders, this BRICS age won’t include free speech, dissidents, nor the God of the Bible.

As Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban rightly implies from time to time: “Putin has some good points, but he’s a naughty, naughty boy for waging a proxy war with Europe in Ukraine.”

This said, Putin’s overreach does the rest of the world a favour.

Censoring a theologically sound sermon as a national security threat exemplifies how easy it will be for governments to abuse misinformation and disinformation legislation.

More to the point, putting a pastor in prison for preaching about peace, reveals the devilish details lurking behind the Russian leader’s questionable justifications for war.

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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.