section_path: Demographics/Religion
section_name: Religion
paragraph_text: Religion
  
  Russia is constitutionally a secular state that officially enshrines freedom of religion. The largest religion is Eastern Orthodox Christianity, chiefly represented by the Russian Orthodox Church, which is legally recognised for its "special role" in the country's "history and the formation and development of its spirituality and culture." Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism are recognised by Russian law as the "traditional" religions of the country constituting its "historical heritage".
  
  Islam is the second-largest religion in Russia and is traditional among the majority of peoples in the North Caucasus and some Turkic peoples in the Volga-Ural region. Large populations of Buddhists are found in Kalmykia, Buryatia, Zabaykalsky Krai, and they are the vast majority of the population in Tuva. A negligible population practices other religions—such as Rodnovery (Slavic Neopaganism), Assianism (Scythian Neopaganism), other ethnic Paganisms, and inter-Pagan movements such as Ringing Cedars' Anastasianism, various movements of Hinduism, Siberian shamanism and Tengrism, various Neo-Theosophical movements such as Roerichism —among other faiths. Some religious minorities have faced oppression and some have been banned in the country: notably, in 2017 the Jehovah's Witnesses were outlawed in Russia, facing persecution ever since, after having been declared an "extremist" and "nontraditional" faith.
  
  In 2012, the research organisation Sreda, in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, published the Arena Atlas, an adjunct to the 2010 census, enumerating in detail the religious populations and nationalities of Russia, based on a large-sample country-wide survey. The results showed that 47.3% of Russians declared themselves Christians—including 41% Russian Orthodox, 1.5% simply Orthodox or members of non-Russian Orthodox churches, 4.1% unaffiliated Christians, and less than 1% Old Believers, Catholics or Protestants —25% were believers without affiliation to any specific religion, 13% were atheists, 6.5% were Muslims, 1.2% were followers of "traditional religions honouring gods and ancestors" (Rodnovery, other Paganisms, Siberian shamanism and Tengrism), 0.5% were Buddhists, 0.1% were religious Jews and 0.1% were Hindus.