Religious issues and persecution: Bimonthly Digest August 01-15
12.08.2025 – The case of the Jehovah’s Witness from Birobidzhan was received in court
Sova – On August 5, 2025, the Birobidzhansky District Court of the Jewish Autonomous Region received the case of Jehovah’s Witness Igor Prityko, who is accused under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (participation in the activities of an extremist organization).
The case was initiated on May 28, 2025, the next day Prityko was interrogated by the Investigative Committee as a suspect. The investigator took a non-depart from him.
12.08.2025 – The Chelyabinsk Regional Court reduced the prison sentence of Jehovah’s Witnesses by six months
Sova – On August 5, 2025, the Chelyabinsk Regional Court changed the sentence of Jehovah’s Witness Andrei Shurygin, found guilty under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of the activities of an extremist organization).
On May 12, 2025, the Soviet District Court of Chelyabinsk sentenced Shurygin to five and a half years in prison. As additional penalties, the court imposed five and a half years of deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to the management of religious organizations and participation in their work, as well as a year of restriction of liberty. Shurygin was taken into custody in the courtroom.
11.08.2025 – The prosecution requested from 4 to 7 years of colony to Jehovah’s Witnesses from Komsomolsk-on-Amur
Sova – On August 6, 2025, during a debate in the Komsomolsky District Court of the Khabarovsk Territory, the prosecutor requested punishment of 10 Jehovah’s Witnesses. Believers Mikhail Dorofeev, Nikolai Kovadnev and Radion Shitov, accused under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of the activities of an extremist organization), the prosecutor asked to impose seven years in prison, and the rest of the defendants in the case – spouses Ulita and Sergei Sachnev, Irina Bondareva and her son Vasily, Marina Voitko, Ivan Nikitin and Svetlana Zharkova – four years of imprisonment under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (participation in the activities of an extremist organization).
11.08.2025 – The Moscow City Court recognized the encyclopedic dictionary “Islam in the North Caucasus” as extremist
Sova – On August 11, 2025, the Moscow City Court considered in one meeting and satisfied the claim of the acting prosecutor of Moscow to recognize the encyclopedic dictionary “Islam in the North Caucasus” as extremist material (Moscow: Publishing House “Medina”, 2023).
Information about the claims of the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office to this publication, published by the publishing house under the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia (DUM) of the Russian Federation, was disseminated in July by religious scholar and “destructologist” Roman Silantyev, who previously demanded a ban on the Duma.`
01.08.2025 – Another case of Jehovah’s Witness has been sent to the Shadrinsk court
Sova – On July 31, 2025, the SU IC of Russia in the Kurgan region reported that the case of the 45-year-old Jehovah’s Witness, accused under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (participation in the activities of an extremist organization). Apparently, we are talking about Igor Suslov.
According to Jehovah’s Witnesses, the case against Suslov was initiated on June 23, 2025. The suspect himself came for interrogation from the Altai Territory to Kurgan. The investigator took a non-depart from him.
04.08.2025 – Yet another woman convicted in Krasnodar Territory Vasilina Penskaya given 2-year suspended sentence for her faith in God
JW – On July 31, 2025, Roman Teplukhin, judge of the Vyselkovskiy District Court of the Krasnodar Territory, issued a ruling in the case of 27-year-old Vasilina Penskaya. She was found guilty of participating in the activity of an extremist organization and given a suspended sentence.
Vasilina faced prosecution on religious grounds in February 2022, when searches were carried out in her home, as well as in the home of her mother, Yelena Rumyantseva. After 1 year and 4 months, Vasilina became a defendant in a criminal case and was added to the Rosfinmonitoring list.
