The Russians of Cyprus

The Russians of Cyprus, numbering approximately 96,000 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are described as an East Slavic people whose culture has developed across the vast landscapes of Eastern Europe and northern Asia, shaped by Orthodox Christianity, agricultural and frontier traditions, and strong state institutions They are an Diaspora people, with Russian as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the Slav, Eastern people cluster of the Eurasian Peoples. They mostly adhere to Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Russian is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2025). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Russian

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Eurasian Peoples
Country: Cyprus
People Cluster: Slav, Eastern
Primary Language(s): Russian (rus)
Primary Religion(s): Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Population: 96,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG033639
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Pray for the Russians of Cyprus

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

96%
%
Eastern Orthodox Christia… Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Russian
Language Family: Indo-European

100%
%
Russian Speakers

Media Resources in Russian:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
JESUSView Film
MagdalenaView Film
MagdalenaView Film
The SaviorView Film
The SaviorView Film

6 films

Bible Resources in Russian:

Or check out the Russian bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 0), which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.
Lostness Priority Index (LPI): Frontier Unreached People Group, (LPI: 0), < 0.1% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity (GSEC: 1), this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years

Next steps for the Russians:
Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

Pray specifically for the Russians of Cyprus

For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
read1 Chronicles 16:26

Pray that those among them who are lost and seeking after worthless idols will have the opportunity to hear and respond to the good news, seeing that Jesus is better than any idol.

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
readJames 4:4

Pray that the lost will be convicted of their friendship with the world, which is hostility toward God, and that they will turn from their sin and embrace the grace and mercy of God through Christ Jesus.

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
readRomans 6:4

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, God will lead those who might hesitate in getting baptized to trust Him as they obey His command, even when obedience is hard.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
read2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Pray that as people hear and believe the gospel, they will serve others in Jesus' name, and the lost will have an opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel.

Russian Across Countries (ROP3 - 108452) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

40 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
RussiansRussiansRussian Federation108,280,000Engaged yet UnreachedRussianUnaffiliated
RussiansRussiansUkraine7,025,000No Longer UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansKazakhstan4,545,000Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansUnited States961,000Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansBelarus776,000Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansUzbekistan550,000Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansLatvia507,000Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansEstonia330,000Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansGermany260,000No Longer UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansKyrgyzstan247,000No Longer UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansCanada200,000Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansLithuania155,000No Longer UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansMoldova132,000No Longer UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansTurkmenistan111,000Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansAzerbaijan108,000Engaged yet UnreachedRussianUnaffiliated
RussiansRussiansCyprus96,000Unengaged and UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansFinland80,500Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansFrance75,000Engaged yet UnreachedFrenchEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansBelgium64,000Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansUnited Kingdom64,000No Longer UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansTajikistan42,500Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansCzech Republic42,000Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansItaly39,500Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansArgentina37,000Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansMadagascar35,000Engaged yet UnreachedRussianUnaffiliated
RussiansRussiansAustria32,000Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansAustralia28,500No Longer UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansGeorgia27,500Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansSweden25,500Unengaged and UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansCuba22,500Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansChina19,000Unengaged and UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansBulgaria14,000Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansPoland14,000Unengaged and UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansNorth Korea5,500Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansNetherlands5,300Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansVenezuela4,500Unengaged and UnreachedRussianUnaffiliated
RussiansRussiansMozambique3,700Engaged yet UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansChile2,000Unengaged and UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity
RussiansRussiansPeru1,400Unengaged and UnreachedRussianUnaffiliated
RussiansRussiansSvalbard1,200Unengaged and UnreachedRussianEastern Orthodox Christianity

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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