30 July 2010 Under the heading "secret" in the Central Internal Affairs Directorate for the Moscow Region, a plan of operational-search measures is approved against followers of the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Sergiev Posad district.
August 2010. Following the plan, operatives S. Chumachkov and N. Luchikhin, feigning interest in religion, twice come to peaceful services. They record the Bible program on hidden video cameras mounted in the borsette and items of clothing.
August 2010. The video materials are transferred for "examination" to Natalia Nikolaevna Kryukova, a mathematics teacher who collaborates with the Russian Institute of Cultural Studies.
11 October 2010 Expert N. Kryukova single-handedly signs the Certificate of Research, in which she reports on signs of extremism in the Bible discussions recorded on camera. The topics of these discussions are noteworthy: "Conquer evil by restraining anger" and "What reputation do you deserve before God."
18 October 2010 The results of the secret operation and the Certificate are transferred to the Investigative Committee (IC) of the Russian Federation for verification.
2010-2013 years. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation does not see corpus delicti in the actions of believers, therefore it refuses to initiate a criminal case.
9 April 2013 Investigator M. Dukhovnev issues a decision to initiate a criminal case under Part 2 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (incitement of hatred or enmity committed by an organized group). More than 2 years of preliminary investigation begins.
12 April 2013 The homes of Jehovah's Witnesses in Sergiev Posad are being searched.
16 July 2013 Vyacheslav Stepanov and Andrey Sivak are charged under Part 2 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
28 October 2013 Expert N. Kryukova (mathematics teacher) in collaboration with V. Batov signs a new linguistic examination performed in the framework of a criminal case.
13 November 2013 Expert N. Kryukova in collaboration with V. Batov signs another linguistic examination carried out in the framework of the criminal case.
8 October 2014 The investigator "puts on the wanted list" and then "discovers" Stepanov and Sivak. Both live at their place of residence and are unaware of the actions of the investigator, who thus artificially prolongs the period of the preliminary investigation.
December 7, 2014. Expert N. Kryukova in collaboration with V. Kotelnikov and A. Tarasov signs another linguistic examination performed in the framework of a criminal case. Each time, the expert detects signs of extremism in the words of believers. According to experts, the defendants incited hatred by saying: "We do not want to lead an empty life that does not have a great value, like most people. They have no goals and no meaning in life and, unfortunately, are unhappy... They are not interested in the creator of all living things."
28 December 2014 The investigator again "puts on the wanted list", and then "discovers" Stepanov and Sivak. Both invariably reside at their place of residence and are unaware of the actions of the investigator, who artificially prolongs the period of the preliminary investigation.
13 April 2015 For the third time, the investigator "put on the wanted list" and then "discovers" Sivak and Stepanov. Both still live at their place of residence and are unaware of the actions of the investigator, who artificially prolongs the period of the preliminary investigation.
August 31, 2015. Sivak and Stepanov are handed the text of the indictment. In it, the investigator claims that since 2007, believers have been hatching plans to incite hatred and humiliate the human dignity of citizens. To this end, they registered a local religious organization with the Russian Ministry of Justice. Their guilt, according to the investigator, was that they held "'religious' meetings of citizens, veiled under the guise of 'religious' meetings" (?!).
October 19, 2015. Sivak and Stepanov are included in the official List of terrorists and extremists (No. 5323 and No. 5234), with the publication of their personal data in the "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" dated 19.10.2015, Sberbank of Russia of the Russian Federation refuses their request to open a cash account. As a result, Andriy Sivak, the father of three children, is deprived of employment in a state institution.
September 2015 – March 2016. Hearings in the Sergiev Posad City Court presided over by Judge Elena Aminova. The interests of believers are represented by lawyers Viktor Zhenkov and Dmitry Kolobov.
20 November 2015 ANO "Laboratory of Applied Linguistics" gives a review of the expert opinions of N. Kryukova and others. Inversion of generally accepted assessments occurs in cases where the object of evaluation is hostile, negatively assesses the positive qualities of the enemy. In other words, it follows from the text of the examination that it is not Jehovah's Witnesses who are hostile to people, but experts V.S. Kotelnikov, N.N. Kryukova and A.E. Tarasov are hostile to Jehovah's Witnesses."
9 February 2016 By court order, the Russian Federal Center for Forensic Expertise under the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation conducts a re-examination of worship services filmed on a hidden camera and concludes that there are no signs of extremism.
4 March 2016 The Sergiev Posad City Court fully acquits the believers.
May 26, 2016. The Moscow Regional Court, at the request of the prosecutor, cancels the acquittal and sends the case for a new trial to the Sergiev Posad City Court.
November 21, 2016. In the course of the retrial, expert N. Kryukova is interrogated, who admits that she assesses the religious direction of Jehovah's Witnesses negatively and that her assessment of words and expressions depends on the representative of which religious direction pronounces them.
January 9, 2017. Judge Lilia Baranova, who has been assigned to the case, proceeds to its retrial.