In the Moscow region, a court ordered the destruction of Gospels published by an undesirable organization

On June 23, 2026, in the Moscow region, a court made a decision in the case under Art. 20.33 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (participation in the activities of a foreign or international organization whose activities are recognized as undesirable in the Russian Federation) in relation to one of the Protestant churches.

A prosecutor’s inspection carried out in May found in the church 178 books “The New Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ” and 74 brochures “The Gospel of John” - both books in the Synodal translation, published with the support of the Eurasia Mission, whose activities were recognized as undesirable in May 2026.

The defense of the religious organization pointed out that the inspection was carried out ten days after the decision was made to recognize the activities of the Eurasia Mission as undesirable and the religious organization did not distribute this literature. In addition, a 2017 letter from the Prosecutor General’s Office talks about the difference between materials revealing the content and results of the activities of an undesirable organization and works that were only republished or transferred by such an organization as part of humanitarian projects: if the organization is not the author of the works and their content is not related to the activities of an undesirable organization, storing such literature is not a violation of the law.

Nevertheless, the court found the pastor guilty and fined him, and ordered the destruction of the confiscated literature.

Let us remind you that previously books published by the Eurasia Mission were confiscated in St. Petersburg.

Sources

• “Destroy the New Testaments and the Gospel of John” // Telegram channel of lawyer S. Chugunov. 2026. June 24.
• A court in the Moscow region decided to destroy religious literature // Telegram channel “7x70”. 2026. June 25.