The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has added defrocked Orthodox priest Yakov Vorontsov to the international database of individuals persecuted for their faith — the Frank R. Wolf Freedom of Religion or Belief Victims List. The database currently contains 2,488 individuals.
In February 2025, authorities arrested Vorontsov, a priest of an unregistered Orthodox church, during a nighttime raid at his home. Vorontsov had been a vocal critic of Russia’s war against Ukraine, stating that it “has nothing to do with Christianity.” On February 13, Judge Saule Khozhakhmetova sentenced him to 10 days of arrest for the illegal “use of narcotic substances” (Article 440-1 of the Administrative Code).
After he served the sentence, the Investigative Court of Almaty extended his detention until April 23, as the prosecutor’s office charged him with operating a “drug den” in his home where his parishioners allegedly gathered, according to the case summary.
Kazakhstan has been placed by the Commission on the “Watch List” — a group of countries where the situation is not yet critical but remains concerning. Along with Kazakhstan, the list includes Algeria, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Qatar, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.
In its December report following visits to Central Asian countries, the Commission wrote in the section on Kazakhstan:
“The legal framework regulating religion in Kazakhstan continues to hinder the free exercise of religious practices. The government uses religion laws to suppress peaceful religious activity, including religious expression, collective worship, and conscientious objection to military service. Those who violate the religion law and related provisions face arbitrary detention, fines, imprisonment, and restrictions on movement. Aside from positive amendments to the Administrative Code, the government has not made significant improvements to the legal framework protecting freedom of religion or belief. On the contrary, the government has recently strengthened restrictions by introducing a ban on wearing face-covering clothing in public places.”
