Russian Supreme Court bans ‘international Satanist movement’

A Russian Supreme Court judge has designated “Satanism” and the “International Satanist movement” as “extremist”, and legally banned their operations in Russia, independent news outlet Mediazona reported on Wednesday.

The decision means that, among other things, “the general principles of Satanism” and the performance of “occult rituals” will now be outlawed in Russia, according to the Prosecutor General’s office, which hailed the designation as a triumph for “legal forces” in the “eternal struggle between good and evil”.

Presiding judge Oleg Nefedov, who previously applied the same designation to the non-existent “international LGBT movement” in November 2023 and oversaw the April decision to decriminalise the Taliban, conducted the hearing in a closed-door session, with no media or other officials permitted to attend.

The designation follows over a year of discussions by top officials and prominent pro-Kremlin voices regarding the fight against Satanism in Russia, which began with a special State Duma session in July 2024, featuring deputies, priests, and several state media propagandists.

During the initial discussion, participants broadly classified a variety of groups, including LGBT individuals, “childfree” advocates, women’s abortion rights proponents, Ukraine’s Azov battalion members, furry and therian subcultures as “Satanist” or destructive influences in society.

In January, Patriarch Kirill, primate of the Russian Orthodox Church and a close ally of Vladimir Putin, renewed discussion of the topic, demanding that Satanism be legally banned in Russia, and endorsed a proposed law banning the advertisement of “occult magic services”, such as astrology or tarot card readings.

“It is unacceptable that various Satanic sects forming part of the international Satanist movement are still freely conducting their rituals in our country, recruiting young people, and openly registering their groups and communities on social media,” Patriarch Kirill said at the time, adding that Russian soldiers in Ukraine were “ready to give their lives for values that are clearly trampled upon by Satanists”.

Though the legislation endorsed by Kirill was rejected on 11 July by the government of Prime Minister Mikhail Mushustin on the grounds that its definitions were overly nebulous, in early July the Prosecutor General’s Office and Justice Ministry jointly filed a lawsuit with the Russian Supreme Court requesting that the “international Satanist movement” be recognised as extremist.

In November 2023, Putin pardoned a member of a Satanist gang that killed four teenagers who was serving a 20-year prison sentence in recognition of his military service in Ukraine.