RUSSIA: Special Bimonthly FORB Digest (16-31.07.2021)

29.07.21 – Rostov court treats Jehovah’s Witnesses harshly

Full text only in Russian: https://www.kavkaz-uzel.media/articles/366509/

A court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced to real prison terms in a penal colony of general regime the Jehovah’s Witnesses Alexander Parkov, and Vilen and Arsen Avanesov, having found them guilty in a case regarding an extremist organization.

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29.07.21 – A wave of searches in 4 cities of the Murmansk Region. Roman Markin convicted of faith is among its victims

Link to full text in Russian: https://jw-russia.org/news/2021/07/291740.html

On July 21 and 22, 2021, about 10 searches were carried out in four cities of the Murmansk region. The security forces broke into the homes of local Jehovah’s Witnesses mostly at night, interrogated them for many hours, and confiscated personal belongings. Criminal cases have been initiated against four believers.

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28.07.21 – New search and criminal case for faith in Luchegorsk. 62-year-old Yuriy Ponomarenko was placed on recognizance not to leave.

Link to full text in Russian: https://jw-russia.org/news/2021/07/280833.html

On July 22, 2021, a 62-year-old electrician Yuriy Ponomarenko was searched in Luchegorsk (Primorsky Territory). Later, the believer was interrogated and placed on recognizance not to leave. A criminal case was initiated against him under an extremist article.

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23.07.21 – The appeal in Novosibirsk upheld the verdict against Vitaliy Popov for faith

Link to full text in Russian: https://jw-russia.org/news/2021/07/231447.html

On July 23, 2021, the Novosibirsk Regional Court upheld the verdict of the first instance court. Vitaliy Popov, 54, was found guilty of participation in the activities of an extremist organization and its financing.

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22.07.21 – Moscow patriarch addresses Orthodox political assembly

Link to full text in Russian: https://religionpravda.com.ua/?p=72022

Patriarch of Moscow Kirill urged “strengthening solidarity in support of suffering brethren in the Near East, in Northern Africa, in Kosovo and Metohija, in Ukraine, and also wherever Christians are being subjected to persecution.” He talked about this in his appeal to participants in the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy on Crete.

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21.07.21 – In the town of Kodinsk, Krasnoyarsk Territory, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses was detained after a search

Link to full text in Russian: https://jw-russia.org/news/2021/07/211416.html

Early on the morning of July 20, 2021 law enforcement officers conducted searches in Kodinsk, Krasnoyarsk Territory, at least five locations where Jehovah’s Witnesses reside. According to preliminary data, one person was detained. Electronic devices were confiscated from peaceful believers.

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21.07.21 – Heavy fines imposed on Jehovah’s Witnesses in Kirov

Link to full text in Russian: https://vkirove.ru/news/2021/07/21/3_svidetelya_iegovy_prigovoreny_v_kirovskoy_oblasti_k_shtrafam.html

The regional Investigative Committee of Russia (S.K.R.) has reported the completion of the judicial investigation and the imposing of a sentence in a criminal case, which was investigated by the first department for investigation of especially serious cases of the investigation department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for Kirov oblast on charges regarding three residents of Kirov oblast.

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20.07.21 – In Birobidzhan the Court gave Anna Lokhvitskaya a 2.5 year suspended sentence for her belief in Jehovah. Such a sentence had already been imposed on her husband and mother-in-law

Link to full text in Russian: https://jw-russia.org/news/2021/07/201520.html

On July 20, 2021, Judge Vasilina Bezotecheskikh of the Birobidzhan District Court of the EAD sentenced Anna Lokhvitskaya to 2.5 years’ probation for participating in the activities of a banned organization. The verdict can be appealed. The believer insists that she wasn’t involved in any extremism.

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20.07.21 – The Court of Appeal left unchanged the verdict against four believers from the City of Chekhov

Link to full text in Russian: https://jw-russia.org/news/2021/07/201729.html

On 20 July 2021, the Moscow regional court did not satisfy the appeal against the criminal case against Vitaliy Nikiforov, Konstantin Zherebtsov, Yuriy and Zinaida Krutyakov from the town of Chekhov. The court equated their peaceful discussion of the Bible with friends with extremism.

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19.07.21 – Seven Jehovah’s Witnesses in Griazi are defendants

Link to full text in Russian: https://moskvichi.net/dvoe-svidetelej-iegovy-dostavleny-pod-domashnij-arest-posle-240-dnej-v-sizo-moskvichi-net-proisshestvija/

On 15 July, a Griazi city court of Lipetsk oblast transferred to house arrest the Jehovah’s Witnesses Sergei Kretov and Evgeny Reshetnikov, who had been in pre-trial detention for 241 days. This was reported by the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia website.

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17.07.21 – Orthodox believers defy government to honor royal saints

Link to full text in Russian: https://credo.press/238211/

Several thousand pilgrims made their way in the night of 17 July for a procession of the cross in memory of the death of the Holy Tsar Nicholas II, scheduled for the 103rd anniversary of the shooting of the royal family. The procession, which was forbidden by the authorities because of the coronavirus pandemic, began after the liturgy conducted by hierarchs of the RPTsMP in the Church-on-the-Blood

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15.07.21 – The re-examination of the criminal case for faith in Karpinsk is over. Defendants received suspended sentences from 1 to 2.5 Years

Link to full text in Russian: https://jw-russia.org/news/2021/07/161427.html

On July 15, 2021, the judge of the Karpinsk City Court of the Sverdlovsk Region Vera Bazuyeva found Aleksandr Prianikov, as well as Venera and Darya Dulova guilty of participating in the activities of a banned organization. Their case was re-tried in the same court after the previous verdict was overturned.

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Further reading about FORB in Russia on HRWF website