Russia: Religious issues and persecution: Bimonthly Digest February 01-15
13.02.2025 – The “Russian community” is outraged by the possible appearance of a Muslim prayer house in Balashikha
Sova – On February 13, 2025, the “Russian Community” reported that in Balashikha near Moscow, the city administration is agreeing on the purchase of a building by the Muslim community for a prayer house. The funds for the purchase of the local religious organization of Muslims “Iman” were allegedly allocated by the Spiritual Administration of Muslims.
Activists of the “Russian Community” are concerned about the fact that the alleged prayer house is located next to the kindergarten and the defense-industrial facility “Kryogenmash”, and public hearings on the issue of providing the building to a religious organization were not held. According to the “community members”, “the competent authorities should urgently check this information and give a legal assessment of the decision of the Balashikha administration to establish a religious object in the specified place”.
13.02.2025 – Court ruled in the case of Valeriy Klokov, Jehovah’s Witness from Altai territory: 3 years in Penal Colony
JW – On February 7, 2025, Dmitriy Malikov, judge of the Industrialnyy District Court of Barnaul, sentenced Valeriy Klokov to 3 years imprisonment. The court considered statements about the need to live according to God’s commandments as “propaganda of exclusivity and superiority… of Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
Klokov faced criminal prosecution in July 2023. Then the Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Altai Territory initiated a criminal case against him. The believer’s home was searched, he was sent to a temporary detention facility for 2 days, and then placed under house arrest for 1 year.
12.02.2025 – Jehovah’s Witness, who refused to be drafted into the army, sentenced to three years in prison
Khpg – On January 27, 2025, Vitaliy Kriushenko began serving a three-year prison sentence. According to the organization’s website, he became the first Jehovah’s Witness to be imprisoned for refusing military service from the beginning of a full-scale Russian invasion. The case was reported on the Jehovah’s Witnesses website JW.ORG, the Witnesses Facebook page and the Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRW) website.
12.02.2025 – A foreign citizen was fined and expelled from the country for prayer in a Moscow hostel
Sova – On January 31, 2025, the Kuzminsky District Court of Moscow fined Ruzimuhammad Hasanjon Ugli Kosimov for “illegal missionary work” and expelled him from the country.
The court found that on January 29, a foreign citizen Kosimov in the lobby of the Mosotel hostel “in the absence of appropriate authority to conduct a religious rite, acted as an imam in a public place not intended for worship and religious rites, <…> carried out the Muslim religious rite “Namaza”.
12.02.2025- The Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky City Court held a debate on the Jehovah’s Witness case
Sova – The prosecutor asked the court to sentence Alexei Ovchar to a long term of imprisonment under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 UK.
On February 10, 2025, during the debate on the case of Jehovah’s Witness Alexei Ovchar in the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky City Court, the prosecutor asked the court to assign the accused six and a half years in a general regime colony under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of the activities of an extremist organization).
A criminal case against Elena and Sergei Chechulin and Alexei Ovchar was initiated in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on September 25, 2022. The believers were accused of holding religious meetings and services. Ovchar was taken a subscription not to travel as a suspect, his wife became a witness in the case.
11.02.2025 – In Kuban, a Baptist minister was fined for “illegal missionary work”
Sova – On January 25, 2025, it became known that on December 15, 2024, in Kurganinsk, Krasnodar Territory, two cases were opened against Baptist minister Alexander Chmykh: under Part 2 of Art. 7 of the Federal Law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations” and under Part 4 of Art. 5.25 Administrative Code (implementation of missionary activities in violation of the requirements of the legislation).
The reason for drawing up the protocols was the Baptist worship service in a private house without notification of the creation of a religious group.
06.02.2025 – Krasnodar Court sends music teacher with disability to penal colony for practicing his faith
JW – On February 4, 2025, the Sovetskiy District Court of Krasnodar sentenced Aleksey Lelikov, 64, to 6.5 years in a penal colony. Judge Irina Klyuyeva considered holding meetings for worship of Jehovah’s Witnesses to be organizing the activity of an extremist organization. The believer was taken into custody in the courtroom.
“I cannot agree to admit my guilt and call myself an extremist, even if it would benefit me,” Lelikov said in his final statement, “because then it would mean that worshipping God is a crime. For me, this is tantamount to denying God and his son Jesus, who have nothing to do with any form of extremism.”
06.02.2025 – Court of Appeal in Udmurtia replaces suspended sentences of two Jehovah’s Witnesses from Izhevsk with imprisonment
JW – The appeal hearing in the case of Aleksandr Votyakov and Yevgeniy Stefanidin ended with a tougher sentence. On February 4, 2025, the Supreme Court of the Udmurt Republic sided with the prosecutor’s office and sent the believers to a penal colony: Aleksandr for 6.5 years, and Yevgeniy for 6 years.
During the trial, the defense filed a motion to recuse A. R. Kudryavtsev, one of the judges of the panel. Previously, he was involved in cases against believers from Izhevsk and Votkinsk. According to the defense, he “had already formed his opinion about Jehovah’s Witnesses and cannot be impartial and objective in the consideration of this criminal case.” The court, however, rejected the motion.
05.02.2025 – Court in Khabarovsk territory gave 78-year-old woman a suspended sentence for letters about God
Sova – The court found Liliya Dolinina, a pensioner from the village of Dormidontovka, guilty of extremism because she wrote letters to a woman on spiritual topics. On February 3, 2025, Judge Kseniya Matviyevskaya gave the elderly believer a 4.5-year suspended sentence.
The charge was based on Liliya’s letters, which she wrote to her son’s friend, I. Lavrenova. According to the believer, her motive was wanting to support this woman. “My goal was to help her come to know God and the advice he gives to people through the Bible,” Liliya said in court. “I just wanted her to enjoy a happy family life with my son.” However, the prosecution regarded this correspondence as an attempt to involve Lavrenova in an extremist organization.
05.02.2025 – The Ministry of Justice demands to liquidate a Muslim organization in Kurgan
Sova – On February 4, 2025, it became known that the Department of the Ministry of Justice for the Kurgan region appealed to the regional court with a suit to liquidate the local religious organization of Muslims of Kurgan.
The Ministry of Justice demands to exclude the organization from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, referring to some violations identified in the activities of the MROM. At the same time, journalists mention “former security forces” as a source of information.
03.02.2025 – Court in Vladivostok passed verdict in case of seven of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
JW – On February 3, 2025, the Pervorechenskiy District Court sentenced Jehovah’s Witnesses from Vladivostok to various terms, even up to 7 years imprisonment. Judge Galina Vasilkevich deemed peaceful religious activity to be extremism. Previously the husband of one of the defendants, Dmitriy Barmakin, was sentenced to 8 years in a penal colony on similar charges.
Igor Lonchakov was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment, Yuriy Redozubov — to 6.5 years. The women were given suspended sentences: Yekaterina Treguba and Lyudviga Katanaeva — 3 years and 4 months each with a 3-year probation period; Yelena Barmakina, Yelena Tsorn and 65-year-old Nina Astvatsaturova — 3 years each with a 3-year probation period.