Approximately 57 percent of young women and 58 percent of young men now identify with a religion Photo: Meridith Kohut para The New York Times

Between Cross and Power: Persecution, Propaganda, and the Cost of Faith in Russian-Controlled Territories

Two episodes, distinct in geography but closely linked in context, illustrate a pattern that is drawing increasing concern among observers of religious freedom: the death in custody of a Christian blogger in Russia, and the seizure of a Catholic church in occupied Ukraine during one of the most sacred moments of the Christian calendar