Bishop Albert Ratkin knows his time could be running out. He opposes Russia’s war in Ukraine, and the Kremlin is watching him.
Russian security forces searched both his home and his Pentecostal church in 2023, confiscating ten computers and other devices. In June 2024, the government added Ratkin, the pastor of Word of Life Church about 90 miles southwest of Moscow, to an official list of foreign agents. To the government, Ratkin is now foreign agent No. 814.
Ratkin believes Moscow is targeting him for his position on peace.
He has promoted antiwar beliefs in interviews in Western media outlets and on his Russian-language YouTube channel.
“Christians should not be involved in the war,” he said, “and should not support the war.”
Publicly opposing the invasion of Ukraine can be costly in Russia. President Vladimir Putin doesn’t tolerate dissent, and people who oppose him have a habit of dying under mysterious circumstances.
But Ratkin continues to speak his mind.
“My conscience is more important for me, and my faith also,” he told Christianity Today. “That is why, as a religious leader in my country, I cannot keep silent.”
As Russia keeps pushing the fight forward in Ukraine—and refusing the terms of a cease-fire suggested by US negotiators—a small but fierce band of religious leaders continues to speak out against the war. Many are evangelicals, inspired by their faith to take great personal risks.
Russian security officials raided the home of Pentecostal pastor Nikolay Romanyuk on the outskirts of Moscow in October. Romanyuk faces up to six years in prison for “public calls to implement activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation.” He said in a sermon that Christians should not join Russia’s war in Ukraine and explained he opposed the invasion “on the basis of Holy Scripture.”
According to Norway-based human rights organization Forum 18, Russia “has used a range of tactics to pressure religious leaders into supporting the renewed invasion of Ukraine.” This includes jailing and fining religious leaders.
Ratkin has seen a range of pressure tactics. In 2020 alone, his church fought a dozen lawsuits. In the last few years, Putin has pushed through additional laws censoring all criticism of the war and giving him more leverage against critics. Today, simply wearing the colors of the Ukrainian flag or holding a blank sign can lead to arrest.
Russia “has become terribly repressive,” Ratkin said, “and any dissent is prosecuted.”
Russian Christians who disagree with the Kremlin often struggle to determine the best course of action. Which actions will make a difference? Which will only lead to suffering?
“Many Russians have ended up in jail and ended up dead,” said Andre Furmanov, an evangelical pastor in Vyborg, near the Finnish border. “We are still going to speak the truth, but we need to be smart and very, very wise about choosing the hills to die on.”
Furmanov focuses his energy on helping men in his church appeal for religious exemptions from the military draft. He has written letters to the government that have resulted in church members securing alternative service in hospitals and retirement homes. He also posts on social media, stating his opposition to the war, but he avoids public protests due to their limited effects.
Other Russian Christians have decided they have to leave their country. Baptist pastor Yuri Sipko fled in 2023 after the government called his sermons “enemy propaganda” and launched a criminal case against him for his antiwar statements.
Sipko said he didn’t trust the system to treat him fairly. If he’d stayed, he said, he likely would have been found guilty and sentenced to ten years in prison.
“The regime in Russia is … reducing civil and religious freedoms on all fronts. The government has tightened control over the activities of the church—in fact, a ban on missionary activity,” Sipko told CT. “I preferred to leave the country, and with God’s help managed to leave Russia.”
One of Sipko’s sons drove him to Minsk in Belarus—a nine-hour drive. Then he flew to Istanbul and made his way from there to Germany, where his daughter took him in. He has applied for asylum in Germany.
Ratkin’s son, David Victor Ratkin, has also left. He was arrested several times for his involvement with an opposition movement called Protest Moscow. He used to speak at the group’s meetings and protested in support of anticorruption activist Alexei Navalny, who eventually died in prison.
The younger Ratkin fled to Turkey and then to Mexico and the United States. He currently lives in Louisiana, waiting for a court hearing on his asylum application.
Back in Russia, Albert Ratkin has decided to stay put and continue his agitation against the war in Ukraine. He knows there may be consequences. He thinks they could come soon. He’s speaking out anyway.
“I think there should be a voice of the truth here,” he said. “All other things are not important.”
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