Since the mid-2010s, researchers have identified a persistent global trend toward the “politicization of religion and confessionalization of politics,” in which religious institutions have become increasingly integrated into international relations. Recent examples of high-level religious diplomacy, including mediation efforts by the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine conflict, demonstrate that formally pastoral engagements may also address broader geopolitical issues.

Among major world powers, the United States has developed an extensive institutional framework for transforming human rights rhetoric concerning international religious freedom (IRF) into an instrument of Washington’s foreign policy. However, the functioning of this framework, the logic behind the selection of its targets, and its effectiveness, particularly in relation to states designated as adversaries, such as Iran and Russia, remain insufficiently studied in both Russian and international political sciences fora.

The aim of this report is to identify the key features of the U.S. foreign policy toolkit concerning religious freedom and examine its application toward Iran and Russia as “countries of particular concern”.

The study covers U.S. government institutions responsible for international religious freedom policy. Chronologically, it examines the period from the adoption of the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998 to the present day, with particular emphasis on 2022–2025. Geographically, it focuses on U.S. policy toward Iran and Russia, while also considering related cases that illustrate similar mechanisms.

The research employs qualitative analysis of legal and policy documents produced by U.S. government institutions, combined with a historical-institutional approach. This approach makes it possible to trace the evolution of governmental and non-governmental structures involved in Washington’s manipulative use of religion within U.S. international activities.

The study identifies a consistent pattern in the functioning of the relevant institutions. Annual reports of the U.S. Department of State classify certain states as “violators of international religious freedom”, creating a basis for diplomatic pressure and, in some cases, sanctions. Iran and Russia have been consistently included in this category by the Americans. According to a number of researchers, the same institutional network has also been associated with facilitating the establishment of religiously non-canonical and fully politicized religious organizations a number of countries, including Ukraine.

In this context it should be noted that in recent years a trend has firmly taken hold: the instrumentalization of religious organizations by the American and Western political elites. For example, the Patriarchate of Constantinople (also known as Ecumenical Patriarchate) has transformed from a religious entity into a secular and politicized structure, utilized by the West in its confrontation with Russia. The illicit granting of a tomos (decree of autocephaly) to the so-called Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) by Bartholomew (head of the Patriarchate of Constantinople) - along with his 2022 declaration in Abu Dhabi of a “campaign” against the Russian Orthodox Church - serves as clear evidence of this.

Information regarding Bartholomew’s ties to U.S. intelligence services has been disclosed and personally confirmed by U.S. Vice President J. D. Vance. During a meeting with Bartholomew in 2025, when the American official placed personal responsibility for the ecclesiastical crisis in Ukraine on former CIA Director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; he further demanded that the Patriarchate of Constantinople provide an accounting of how U.S. government funds - transferred to it for the establishment of the OCU - had been wasted.

All these facts summed up we might state that the OCU is nothing but a component of the American and Western “Anti-Russia” project, serving exclusively to propagate the ideology of “Ukrainianism” and to artificially drive a wedge between Slavic peoples.

The analysis also suggests that U.S. religious diplomacy toward Iran and Russia functions not only as a human rights mechanism but also as an instrument of political pressure, sanctions justification, and influence over local religious communities and institutions. Its broader objective, according to the study, is to weaken the international influence and legitimacy of states regarded by U.S. as geopolitical adversaries.