. >> wendy: and here with us now is sergei abuba, who works with a group to promote the gospel in the former soviet union. so great to have you on our show. >> it is a privilege to be with you. >> wendy: why are we seeing these new attacks on the religion in the former soviet union. >> since 22 years ago, things changed again. the spiritual landscape, the political landscape, economy, is changing drastically in all of those countries. the countries that once were freed from the oppression of the soviet union. and in those countries and central asia, like uzbekistan, where radical islam is coming into more effective -- in many cases, oppression. >> wendy: how is the church responding? >> as we're talking today, wendy, churches are responding tremendously. under persecution. pastors are thrown to prisons, bibles are confiscated, and bibles are destroyed in uzbekistan, but we see the house churches are growing by every day. so the church is growing tremendously underground. >> wendy: is the increase in religious persecution coming from the russian government? >> you know, there is a cons