On July 23, 2025, Russia’s Supreme Court outlawed the so-called ‘international satanic movement’ and declared it an extremist organization. The problem is that this movement does not exist. Independent outlets such as Meduza and the NGO Department One confirmed that no organized structure of that kind is operating in the country.
What does exist is a pattern. The judge who signed the ruling, Oleg Nefedov, is exactly the same magistrate who in 2023 banned the equally nonexistent ‘international LGBTIQ+ movement.’ In both cases, the Russian state constructed an enemy with no body, no headquarters, no verifiable leadership, and then declared it illegal. The maneuver has a cold logic: when a fictitious organization is banned, no one can challenge the ban in court, because doing so would imply identifying oneself as a member of the prohibited group. The legal remedy disappears before anyone can exercise it.
The measure was driven by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, who in January 2025 had called it ‘unacceptable’ for satanic sects to operate freely, and it was celebrated by the Prosecutor General’s Office as ‘a victory in the eternal struggle of good against evil.’ What the specialists consulted by France 24 point out is that the rule can be used to prosecute anyone accused of preaching ‘the general principles of satanism’ or of organizing ‘occult rituals,’ terms broad enough to include almost anyone the state decides to target.