Russia: Religious issues and persecution: Bimonthly Digest May 01-15
15.05.2025 – The owner of the Muslim prayer house in Kamchatka has been warned
Sova – On April 14, 2025, it became known that the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation is investigating the activities of an illegal prayer house in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
A local Muslim religious organization bought a building on Karl Marx Avenue and organized a prayer house in it without the appropriate permission to do so. The authorities of the region said that they would not agree to the activities of the prayer house without public hearings.
Local residents complained about the large number of cars of visitors to the mosque in residential courtyards. The inspection carried out in the building revealed a violation of sanitary and fire safety standards.
13.05.2025 – One of Jehovah’s Witnesses from Chelyabinsk sentenced to 5.5 years in prison for his faith in God
JW – On May 12, 2025, Judge Yuliya Zhivodinskaya sentenced 49-year-old Andrey Shurygin, an overhead linesman from Chelyabinsk, to 5.5 years imprisonment. Reading and discussing the Bible with fellow believers is deemed as “organizing the activity of an extremist organization.”
The verdict has not entered into force and can be appealed.
The criminal prosecution of Andrey Shurygin began with surveillance, searches and interrogations in June 2023. Due to the severe shock, the believer suffered a cardiac arrest. Andrey recalls: “During the search, the front door and balcony were damaged, there were many different thoughts and mixed emotions spinning round my mind. The investigator and officers wanted to obtain the passwords to our phones through intimidation, threats and persuasion. And the investigators said: ‘Renounce God and live peacefully.'”
12.05.2025 – Patriarch of Moscow issues a “friendly” address to the new Pope
Risu – “You are beginning your ministry as the head of the Roman Catholic Church at a particularly historic moment, marked by a series of cultural challenges as well as certain signs of hope,” Patriarch Kirill wrote to Pope Leo XIV.
“In this context, the relationship between the Christian East and West holds special significance for the fate of the world,” he added in his message to the newly elected pope.
While Kirill did not specify what he meant by “signs of hope,” he may have been referring to U.S.-led efforts to end the war in Ukraine, according to Orthodox Times.
12.05.2025 – A resident of Ivanovo was sentenced under Art. 148 UK
Sova – Dmitry Vetrov was sentenced to a fine of 140 thousand rubles. Previously, he was twice fined under Art. 20.3.1 Administrative Code on incitement to hatred.
On May 12, 2025, the press service of the courts of the Ivanovo region reported that the justice of the peace of the judicial district № 5 of the Leninsky judicial district of Ivanovo sentenced a 43-year-old local resident under Part 1 of Art. 148 of the Criminal Code (insulting the religious feelings of believers). It’s about Dmitry Vetrov. The court fined him 140 thousand rubles.
The reason for the criminal prosecution of the Ivanovie was the comments he left in VKontakte from July 29, 2024 to January 23, 2025. They were dedicated to “Russian clergy, Orthodox Church and other religious communities”. According to the version of the investigation, which the court agreed, Vetrov aimed to offend “the religious feelings of believers of different faiths, Christians of different faiths as a group of persons”.
12.05.2025 – Two Jehovah’s Witnesses were arrested in Adygea
Sova – On April 29, 2025, Jehovah’s Witnesses were searched in Adygeisk. The detained Alexei Dmitriev and Yuri Sergeechev were detained by the court the next day.
What exactly the believers are accused of has not yet been specified. Probably, we are talking about another criminal case under Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of the activities of an extremist organization or participation in it).
The criminal case is being investigated by the bodies of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, the searches were carried out with the participation of FSB operatives.
07.05.2025 – In Bashkortostan and Udmurtia, mandatory work was appointed on the financing of the Ukrainian church
OVD – On March 24, the Neftekamsk City Court of Bashkortostan sentenced Resid Sadeev to 360 hours of compulsory work in the case of financing an “undesirable organization” (part 2 of Art. 284.1 OF THE CRIMINAL CODE). The sentence was published on the court’s website.
According to the investigation, she transferred 32,886 rubles 26 kopecks to the All-Ukrainian Spiritual Center “Renaissance” and “Charitable Foundation “Renaissance” of Vladimir Muntyan.
In Izhevsk, a 25-year-old local resident was convicted on a similar charge, IZHLIFE reported on May 5. She was assigned 240 hours of compulsory work.
06.05.2025 – Supreme Court of the Karachayevo-Circassian Republic upheld guilty verdict against one of Jehovah’s Witnesses
JW.RU – On April 29, 2025, the court of appeal upheld the guilty verdict against Yevgeniy Semenov. “The court equated a believer of a peaceful religion with a terrifying follower of an agrressive movement,” said Yevgeniy’s lawyer. “Therefore,… he is a victim of discrimination.”
In his appeal, Semenov referred to the position of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the UN Human Rights Council: “Since the right to freedom of conscience and religion applies to everyone, it undoubtedly applies to Jehovah’s Witnesses, to their religious practices and manifestations, and also includes the right to gather for meetings for worship. […] Practicing the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses cannot be interpreted as extremist activity.”
05.05.2025 – Criminal cases have been opened in Moscow against two followers of Jehovah’s Witnesses
Sova – On April 22, 2025, the investigator of the Koptevsky Interdistrict Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of the Northern Administrative District of Moscow initiated a criminal case under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 Criminal Code (participation in the activities of an extremist organization) against the 50-year-old follower of Jehovah’s Witnesses Maria Pankova, the wife of Sergei Tolokonnikov.
On April 24, Pankova, as well as the 74-year-old believer Nadezhda Lebed, were searched with the seizure of equipment. They took a non-deval subscription from both.
01.05.2025 – Court sent man to penal colony for 6 years, and fined woman
JW.RU – On April 29, 2025, Yevgeniy Zadvornyy, judge of the Lesosibirsk City Court of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, issued a decision in the case of Andrey Shiyan and Anna Matveeva: 6 years and 1 month in a penal colony and a fine of 400,000 rubles, respectively. Andrey was taken into custody in the courtroom.
Andrey and Anna first faced criminal prosecution in November 2021. Then the law enforcement officers raided and searched their homes as part of the criminal case against another believer from Lesosibirsk, Valeriy Shitz. Later, in January 2023, Artem Kunko, a senior investigator of the Lesosibirsk Investigation Department of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Republic of Khakassia, initiated criminal cases against Shiyan and Matveeva.
01.05.2025 – Inver Siyukhov, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses from Maykop, served his sentence and was released
JW.RU – On April 30, 2025, Inver Siyukhov, 51, who had been convicted for his faith, was released. He spent 4 years in the pretrial detention center, where the length of punishment is calculated on the principle of 1 year for 1.5 years. This is a record length of time that any Jehovah’s Witness was held in a pretrial detention center. At the checkpoint, the believer was met by his relatives.
Inver Siyukhov was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment, but he was never sent to a penal colony. From the moment of his arrest until his release, he was in a pretrial detention center (Facility used for pretrial detention) at strict regime penal colony No. 1 in the village of Tlyustenkhabl, which is about 110 km from Maykop. Conditions of detention in such a facility are much harsher than in a penal colony.
