On Sakhalin, the FSB Stopped Criminal Proceedings Against Believers for Talking About God - Not a Crime

On August 27, 2020, the FSB department for Sakhalin region stopped criminal prosecution for religious activities of two Nevelsk residents, 50-year-old Vyacheslav Ivanov and 23-year-old Dmitry Kulakov.

"This positive event indicates that, if the law enforcement agencies wish, they are able to conduct an objective investigation and do not give in to the trend of harmful to society persecution of peaceful believers. I want to believe that the same result will come to other criminal cases, which were groundlessly prosecuted only for religious beliefs," - commented the situation representative of the European Jehovah's Witnesses Association Yaroslav Sivulsky.

Ivanov and Kulakov were detained in July 2019 when they were talking to local residents about God and the Bible. On the same day, they were released. Later a criminal case was initiated against the believers under part 2 of Article 282.2 of the Russian Criminal Code. According to the case materials, Dmitry and Vyacheslav "by prior conspiracy... conducted conversations with residents.... at home, trying to impose on them the ideas that were preached by a religious association liquidated by court order in connection with extremist activities".

In October 2019 the houses of the men were searched. The seized publications, audio cassettes, disks, a laptop and a telephone were sent by law enforcement agencies for examination, which found no signs of extremism, hatred, hostility or degradation of dignity on religious grounds. In addition, the expert concluded that the submitted materials did not support the idea of superiority of one religion over another.

After reviewing the facts, FSB investigator Melnikov D. S. terminated the criminal proceedings because, as stated in the ruling, "the actions of Kulakov and Ivanov are of a general religious nature related to the right to practice a religion that is not prohibited in the Russian Federation, which is guaranteed by Article 28 of the Russian Constitution. As recalled in the document, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation did not assess the legality of Jehovah's Witnesses' religious beliefs or the ways in which they were expressed. No crime was found in the actions of Vyacheslav and Dmitry.

Thus, Dmitry Kulakov is no longer a defendant in a criminal case. However, Ivanov Vyacheslav is still a suspect in another criminal case opened against five Sakhalinians, including Dmitry Kulakov's parents - Tatiana and Sergei.