As Pope Leo XIV highlights the need for interreligious dialogue and diplomacy, religious liberty in Russia continues to decline, with the U.S. International Religious Freedom Commission citing that nation’s intensified use of blasphemy laws to silence freedom of expression.

At the same time, a Russian-born scholar told OSV News that even theological disagreement within the Russian Orthodox Church is silenced.

In May, Pope Leo stressed to Vatican-accredited diplomats that interreligious dialogue can foster peace, with such exchange first requiring “full respect for religious freedom in every country, since religious experience is an essential dimension of the human person.”

But a month earlier, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued an update on Russia’s “intensifi

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