Case History
After a series of searches in Vladivostok in March 2023, three Jehovah’s Witnesses were detained and placed in a temporary detention facility. Two days later, Yegor Pogrebnyak was released under house arrest, and Yuriy Byche and Sergey Novoselov were sent to a pre-trial detention center. A criminal case was initiated against the believers under an article for extremism. Later that month, Tatyana Kazakova, Marina Roslova, Alina Tkachenko, Anastasiya Dyldina and Yelena Romanova became defendants in the case. In December of the same year, after new searches, Kirill Chekolaev was arrested. He spent about 5 months in detention, and Novoselov and Byche almost a year. All three were released under a ban on certain actions. In April 2025, another believer, Kirill Krymskiy, was charged with extremisim.