7 most dangerous religious organizations in Russia and why people are drawn to them

The main hypnotist of the 1990s returned to Moscow Anatoly Kashpirovsky. He has a whole army of loyal followers who idolize him. He conducts business carefully, but in Russia there are destructive organizations that break people. Experts told how they draw you into their networks.

Freedom of religion allows not only to openly confess Christ or Buddha. This freedom is fraught with dangers: hundreds of controversial religious associations operate in our country. And a huge part of them works against the people and against the state, dividing people, robbing them, and sometimes pitting one against another. The state is not keeping up with the prohibitions, and the struggle is reminiscent of the battle of Hercules with the hydra. Where a head is cut off, three grow.

Neo-Pentecostals**

Neo-Pentecostals threaten Russia’s constitutional order

This religious organization, banned in Russia, has about forty names. In Russia, at least 300 thousand people are adherents. Neo-Pentecostal** (charismatic) organizations are sponsored by the United States and Western foundations. The teaching is often based on the Protestant postulate: if you are rich, it means God loves you.

For example, in 2021, the Pentecostal organization “New Generation”* was recognized as undesirable in Russia – “for threatening the foundations of the constitutional order and security of the country.” The Pentecostal Church was founded in 1989 in Latvia. Its leader was Alexey Ledyaev, who works closely with the Americans. The “New Generation”* is considered an undesirable organization in Russia.

They note that the Church has its own hierarchy and strictly controls the subordination of adherents. For his followers, Ledyaev even published a book in which he taught how to “change the world” through invasion, ruin and destruction. The Ukrainian “Theological Educational Institution”* and the “International Bible College”* of the “New Generation”* were also considered undesirable. As you can see, neo-Pentecostals** operate on a large scale.

Organization “Nurcular”**

The Nurcular organization was founded in Turkey by Said Nursi at the beginning of the 20th century.

The international religious organization “Nurcular”** was declared extremist in 2008. The “headquarters” of the organization is located in Turkey, and its adherents promote the ideas of the superiority of the Turks and the need to unite the entire Islamic world under the leadership of Ankara. The leader of Nurjular in Russia was Kamil Odilov, who is called a “Siberian extremist” in the press.

The organization demanded blind obedience from adherents. They were essentially trained as martyrs, capable of becoming a living bomb at the first word of the leader. The Nurcular** organization was clearly structured, its activities were carried out underground in many regions of Russia. Adherents tried to penetrate into government and educational institutions to recruit new members. After Nurcular** was outlawed, its activities did not stop. She appears every now and then in different cities of Russia. It is unknown how many adherents of the organization are currently in the country.

Faizrahmanists**

In the 2010s, a small and rather secretive Islamic community of Fayzrahmanists** announced the creation of an Islamic state on seven hundred square meters on the outskirts of Kazan in the village of Torfyanoy. The founder of the community was Faizrakhman Sattarov, who was deputy mufti in Soviet times. In the 1980s, he declared himself a messenger of Allah, went to Naberezhnye Chelny, bought a house and founded his own madrasah there. His commune moved to Kazan in the 1990s. In 2004, the community broke all ties with the outside world. The radicals drew attention after the murder of Deputy Mufti Valiulla Yakupov and the assassination attempt on the Mufti of the Republic of Tatarstan Ildus Fayzov. The activities of extremists were banned.

“Shambhala Ashram”**

Journalists believe that the Shambhala Ashram** bears all the signs of a totalitarian sect. Its members ate only rice, lived 18 people to a room and slept according to a schedule. But that didn’t make them any smaller.

Konstantin Rudnev served 11 years for illegal activities

The founder of the Shambhala Ashram** was a certain Konstantin Rudnevcalling himself the Altai shaman Bogomudr. People were lured into the organization with promises of discovering superpowers and leading to great knowledge of the East. Its members were deprived of their usual social circle, under emotional influence they left the family and lived in a community. Main “priestess” Rudneva Elena Zakharovahaving spent 28 years in the organization and escaped from there, is now fighting the “Shambhala Ashram”** and its founder. To this day, thousands of people remain active followers of the organization.

Jehovah’s Witnesses**

Inconspicuous people in dark clothes handed out magazines throughout the 1990s.

Back in 2017, there were at least 165 thousand adherents of the Jehovah’s Witnesses** sect in Russia. People dressed in black and waiting for the end of the world were in every city in the 1990s and 2000s. They went door-to-door with maniacal persistence, offering The Watchtower magazine and persistently inviting people to attend meetings. They might be considered harmless eccentrics, but the sect’s headquarters were in New York. And the adherents themselves collected information about everyone with whom they spoke, and tried to tear the newcomers away from their family and state, instilling in them that this was “from the evil one.”

It is known that in 1999, 70% of adherents were women, with men occupying all leadership positions. Almost 40% of the adherents were pensioners, and 15% were teachers and students. Now they have simply gone underground.

“Aum Shinrikyo”**

Aum Shinrikyo building** in Kamikuishiki (Japan), September 8, 1996

In the 1990s in Russia there were from 30 to 50 thousand adherents of the Japanese sect “Aum Shinrikyo”**. In essence, this was another pseudo-religious organization trying to create a state within a state. Moreover, throughout the 1990s, sect leader Asahara was welcomed in Russia at the highest level.

But in 1995, a real scandal broke out in Japan. It all started with the murder of a lawyer who was preparing a lawsuit against Asahara, and ended with the spraying of sarin gas in the Tokyo subway. As a result of the attack, 13 people died, about 6.5 thousand were poisoned. A year earlier, a similar terrorist attack was committed in the city of Matsumoto. Seven people died there. It is curious: at the time when the Aum Shinrikyo sect reached the peak of popularity, there were much fewer of its adherents in Japan than in Russia – about 10,000 people.

Neopagans

Neopaganism is a project of the West

Their name is legion, and this phenomenon remains to be studied. According to some reports, the headquarters of the neo-pagans is in New York. There seems to be nothing dangerous – people wear linen shirts, weave wreaths and jump over the fire. But for some reason it all ends either with preaching the superiority of the Slavs over other peoples, or with the murder of priests, or even with sacrifices – as in the Azov battalion**.

Religious scholars have already started talking about the real danger of neo-paganism for the Russian people. Now in Russia there are at least 50 neo-pagan organizations, among which the most numerous are considered to be the Rodnovers and the Children of Perun community. According to the most minimal estimates, there are at least 100,000 neopagans in Russia.

And if you look closely, you can see that they are very actively opposed to the Russian Orthodox Church, participate in environmentalist protests, campaign and infiltrate power structures.

Why do people join sects?

Practicing psychologist and analytical psychologist Elena Krylova told Life.ru that the lack of critical thinking among the population is largely to blame. People are attracted by a beautiful presentation and a bright wrapper, they don’t wonder what these people need from me.

Elena Krylova believes that the second reason is total loneliness in big cities. Man is a social being. He needs to belong to a group or community. Young people, and even older people, are attracted to something prestigious, interesting, ideological, mysterious. The presence of famous people in the ranks of the organization and the charisma of the leader can be of particular importance. A person pecks at the bright shell and ends up in the clutches of the sectarians.