New Criminal Case in the Chelyabinsk Region. Local Jehovah's Witnesses Were Searched in Kopeysk

On November 24, 2021, in the city of Kopeysk, the homes of four families of Jehovah's Witnesses were searched. It is known that a criminal case has been initiated.

Starting at 6:30 in the morning, representatives of the FSB and the Investigative Committee began to rush into the believers under various pretexts. They were accompanied by SOBR fighters and operatives. Personal notes, electronic devices, information carriers, photographs and Bibles were seized from the believers.

57-year-old Ivan Kopinyak, while familiarizing himself with the search warrant, felt sick and fainted. The law enforcers considered all this a "circus" and began to make sarcastic remarks about the believers. But later they still allowed Ivan's wife to measure his blood pressure and call an ambulance. Despite the condition of the believer, after the search he was taken for interrogation.

To the Tolmachev family, the security officials rang the doorbell under the pretext that a certain car had been scratched. After 47-year-old Alexandr Tolmachev said that he would go down now, they demanded to open the door, threatening to break it open. When Alexandr's wife opened the door, nine security officials burst into the house, the man was ordered to lie on the floor. After a search in the house, the security forces examined the family's car and took the spouses away for interrogation to the Kopeysk FSB department.

Events developed in a similar way during the search of the Kolovanov family. They rang the doorbell, saying that they needed help in the apartment next door. When Natalia Kolovanova opened the door, the security forces rushed in, rudely pushing the woman away, and began to film what was happening on her phone camera. After the search, Natalya, along with her daughter and son-in-law, was taken away for interrogation.

Another search took place in the family of Ivan Shoshin and his wife Yelena. After the search, they were also taken to the FSB, where they spent 6 hours awaiting interrogation.

All events took place within a criminal case that was initiated on November 8, 2021 against unidentified persons. According to law enforcement officers, the Kopeysk believers organized an extremist organization in the city simply because they professed faith in Jehovah God.

Searches and a criminal case were initiated by the investigator of the third department for the investigation of especially important cases of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in the Chelyabinsk Region, Alexandr Chepenko, who initiated almost all cases against Jehovah's Witnesses in the Chelyabinsk Region. Among those who were prosecuted for their faith on his initiative are Vladimir and Valentina Suvorov, who have already received suspended sentences, as well as Lyudmila Salikova and Ilya Olenin from Snezhinsk whose cases are under investigation.

The order to conduct searches of residents of Kopeysk was issued by Leonid Bobrov, acting chairman of the Traktorozavodsky District Court of Chelyabinsk, who had previously authorized a search of Salikova.