The paper analyzes the doctrine of religious security among other things it is noted the this doctrine was not formally consolidated in strategic state documents, but in practice that results in an expansive interpretation of religious security based on the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation. The paper also shows how the argument about religious security can be used both in favor of protecting such security and religious freedom, and as a goal of introducing serious restrictions on rights and freedoms. Based on the analysis, the author comes to the conclusion that it is unacceptable to use an abstract formally indefinite category of religious security as one of the criteria for the proportionality of restrictive measures.
The article focuses on the reasons of why the only way found by the state is to declare the entire religious sphere potentially dangerous as well as it analyzes current legislation that aims to protect state, society, religious organization and citizens, but often leads to suppressing non-traditional religious associations under the guise of protecting religious security.

Based on the materials of a specific trial, the article studies the attitude of Christian churches to wine and winemaking, explains the reason for the presence of the word “holy” in a number of wine names, and considers whether that can be perceived offensive by believers. Also, it analyzes the phenomenon of holiness and its place in religious life, and in particular, in the Christian one, the place of religious morality in a secular society and a number of other the related to the topic of the article.

The article considers the mechanisms of regulation of religious life by state structures, the use of various methods of restricting the activities of religious associations in Russia, the emergence of new instruments of pressing the believers and religious organizations at the level of legislation and law enforcement in 2000–2022. It analyzes the correspondence of these mechanisms to the goals declared during their preparation and the effectiveness of their application, as well as the consequences of using these mechanisms for the religious organizations themselves, both traditional and religious minorities. The author also reviews the consequences of state pressure on religious associations on the state of religious freedom in the country and the level of public and state security. Furthermore is referring to the application of anti-extremist legislation to religious associations, changes to the law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations” and other legislation regulating the religious sphere, as well as the inappropriate bringing of representatives of various religious organizations to criminal and administrative liability.

The article deals with post-Soviet Russian anti-cultism (anti-cult or Countercult movement) and presents its periodization regarding the impact of anti-cultism on the formation of state-confessional relations in the Russian Federation. The dynamic growing of anti-cultism in Russian politics shows that it brings xenophobia towards religious minorities, causes denominational splits and conflicts, marginalizes and discriminates the followers of the socalled ‘sects’.
Anti-cultism as an ideological foundation for the state-church relationships in the multi-religious Russian society inevitably causes conflicts and enhances persecution against religious minorities.

Based on publicly available information about the history of religion, the article considers the mission of religion, which reveals a noticeable ambiguity in historical retrospect and its relationship with missionary practice at the present. Also, on the example of a demonstrative judicial situation, paradoxical contradictions between missionary practice under the declaration of religious freedom and the practice of regulating religious missionary work in modern Russia are analyzed.

The special relevance of the topic of relations between the Russian Federation and the Council of Europe/ECHR is connected with the “divorce” of Russia with Europe as part of the collective West, which is happening before our eyes, which is accompanied by mutual accusations and “breaking dishes”. In this context, the unique case of correcting national legislation under the influence of the ECHR decision is extremely indicative for the Russian legal system. In addition, it is also connected with the legislative regulation of the religious sphere, it is also important to understand what happened “at the exit”.

The program of the course “History of state-confessional relations in Russia” is devoted to the consideration of the most important aspect of the internal policy of the state – the relationship with religious organizations. Based on the historical and present-day material, the authors consider the essence and evolution of state-religious relations, the principles and content of the religious policy of the state, the stages of formation and development of relations between state institutions and confessional organizations.