Russia’s Supreme Court on Wednesday outlawed the so-called “International Satanist Movement,” granting a request from state prosecutors to designate it as an “extremist” organization.
During the hearing, justices said the group’s activities were aimed at undermining Russia’s constitutional order, promoting violence and inciting religious hatred, the state-run TASS news agency reported. The ruling takes effect immediately.
The move follows an April roundtable in the lower-house State Duma focused on combating “Satanism” and other ideologies that authorities claim pose a threat to Russian statehood.
Lawmakers at that discussion described Satanism as a “misanthropic ideology based on the justification of evil,” accusing it of seeking to destroy Russia’s traditional religions as part of what they called Western hybrid warfare. They compared the ideology to Nazism and LGBTQ+ identities.
Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office submitted its request to ban the group earlier this month. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, publicly supported the designation.
While international Satanist groups do exist — such as the Order of Nine Angles, which has been linked to far-right terrorism cases in the U.K. — the “International Satanist Movement” as defined by Russian authorities does not appear to exist as a formally recognized organization.
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