Case History
In February 2025, the FSB Directorate for the Saratov Region initiated a criminal case for participating in the activity of an organization declared extremist. This is how the investigation interprets the holding of peaceful meetings for worship of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In September of the same year, searches were carried out at the homes of several believers in Saratov and the village of Anastasino. The court placed Mikhail Proshenkov, Aleksey Kazakov, Aleksandr Akelin and Filipp Ombysh in a pretrial detention center, and Sergey Yefremov under house arrest. During the search, a stun gun was repeatedly and unreasonably used against Proshenkov, his wife asked numerous authorities to urgently investigate the incident. The court soon transferred all four believers from the pre-trial detention center to house arrest.