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At Least Six Searches of Jehovah's Witnesses Took Place in the Stavropol Territory. A Criminal Case Was Brought Against an 82-Year-Old Visually Impaired Woman
Stavropol TerritoryOn November 26, 2021 searches were conducted in the resort town of Zheleznovodsk. Officers from the FSB and the Center for Counteracting Extremism entered the homes of what they believe to be Jehovah's Witnesses. A criminal case was initiated against Zinaida Minenko, 82, and she had to sign not to leave agreement.
Investigations in the town began around 7 a. m. and lasted from 1 to 5 hours. In several cases, according to believers, operatives planted flash drives with unknown content as well as books from the Federal List of Extremist Materials in their homes. Electronic devices, media, photographs, personal records, and bank cards were taken from the believers; one of the victims had a large amount of personal savings.
It also became known that the searches affected three women who were not Jehovah's Witnesses.
Back in 2016, believers in Stavropol Territory reported that security forces were planting prohibited items on them. Sometimes this was clearly recorded by surveillance cameras. As a result, criminal cases were brought against 14 Jehovah's Witnesses from this region for their belief in God. 90-year-old Rimma Vaschenko from Nevinnomyssk was the oldest "extremist" in Russia. She died in January 2021, not having had time to defend her good name in court.