New Searches in Vladivostok. Already More Than 30 Local Believers Are Persecuted for Their Beliefs

The investigation charged four Jehovah's Witnesses from Vladivostok, three of them elderly, with extremism. This happened on September 17, 2025, immediately after searches in the homes of peaceful believers.

Vyacheslav Yudin, 68, Sergey Isupov, 66, Sergey Chikichev, 64, and Andrey Yavniy, 58, do not agree with the charges. The latter appealed it in court. "Simply participating in a meeting for worship or reading the Bible is not a crime," he said.

Searches began at 7 a.m. and lasted about three hours. The security forces seized their electronics, Bibles, personal notes and postcards. The operatives took family savings from Yavniy, as well as part of his couple's work documents, without recording them in the protocol. After the searches, four men were taken to the Investigative Committee for interrogation.

The criminal case against the believers was initiated on September 11, 2025, by Investigative Committee investigator Denis Sushchenko, who had previously initiated cases against other Jehovah's Witnesses in the city of Vladivostok. He accused Chikichev, Yudin, Yavniy and Isupov of participating in the activities of a liquidated organization (part 2 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

As of September 2025, more than 60 people from the Primorye Territory have already faced criminal prosecution, half of them are residents of Vladivostok.