One lawyer says that the Russian government's actions against two evangelical seminaries are "systemic, intentional," and points to rising pressure on protestant organizations from the government. 

Forum 18 reports that many theological training schools in Russia "have faced fines, suspension of their activities and student admissions, and in the worst case scenario, loss of their licence, as a result of routine inspections carried out by federal education inspectorate Rosobrnadzor. The institutions themselves insist that they committed no violations."

That includes two of the top seminaries in the country: the Pentecostal Union's Eurasian Theological Seminary; and the Baptist Union's Moscow Theological Seminary.

Pentecostal Seminary

In October of 2018 Pentecostal Union's Eurasian Theological Seminary's licence was annulled. That came after what Evangelical Focus calls "a series of court cases brought against it by the Federal Service for Supervision in Education and Science Rosobrnadzor over the administration of its undergraduate theology degree."

As a result, it is no longer allowed to offer any of its degree and diploma courses.

The Pentecostal Union's lawyer, Vladimir Ozolin, said, "I believe these actions have a systemic, intentional character, under the pretext of supervision of educational activities. In this way, pressure is being exerted on the non-traditional confessions; this is perhaps another act of intimidation."

Ozolin says that the school is applying for a new license.

Baptist Seminary

Meanwhile, in January of 2019, the Baptist Union’s Moscow Theological Seminary received a 60-day suspension of all activities. That suspension has just come to an end, however, in February it was banned from accepting new students.

“The news of the suspension of the Seminary’s activities was a surprise”, Rector Pyotr Mitskevich told Forum 18. "The Seminary students are spiritual people, and during the entire period of punishment, they have prayed and supported the staff."

The school is challenging the rulings in court, and has a hearing scheduled for April 10.

Russian religion and education laws

Both the Religion Law (Article 19, Paragraph 3) and the Education Law (Article 87, Paragraph 9) state: "Religious educational organizations implement educational programmes aimed at training clergy and religious personnel of religious organizations, and have the right to implement educational programmes of secondary professional education and higher education in accordance with the requirements of federal state educational standards."

This gives religious educational institutions a right, "but not an obligation", Ozolin told Forum 18. "It means that religious educational organizations decide for themselves whether or not they will implement educational programmes which conform to federal state requirements."

That means if a school chooses not to get state accreditation then it has to only follow its own internal requirements for how to organize courses.