According to the 232-page document, there are 17 nations listed at Tier 1 abusers of religious freedom...
...There are 10 on the Tier 2 list, including Russia...
...According to the report, Russia continues to bring criminal extremism charges against peaceful religious individuals and groups. Muslim, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Protestant faiths are those facing the most oppression. The violations have been widespread in the Northern Caucasus region, Russian-occupied Crimea, and the Russian-separatist regions of eastern Ukraine.
Kusack says the religious oppression in occupied Ukraine is coming from Russian Orthodox militants. “Everything that’s happening in the occupied territories of eastern Ukraine [is] happening by the Kremlin approval.”
When Russian-back separatists occupied eastern Ukraine, Kusack says the persecution began. “[They] started to hunt evangelicals, confiscate church buildings, kidnap and torture Christian leaders, and some of them were tortured to death.”