On November 21, 2025, the Levoberezhniy District Court of the City of Voronezh convicted Brothers Aleksey Antyukhin, Sergey Baev, Yuriy Galka, Valeriy Gurskiy, Igor Popov, Vitaliy Nerush, Stepan Pankratov, a Yevgeniy Sokolov, Mikhail Veselov, and Anatoliy Yagupov. Sergey and Igor were each given a six-year suspended prison sentence and are not required to go to prison at this time. The other brothers were each sentenced to six years in prison except for Yevgeniy, who was given a seven-year prison sentence. These brothers were taken into custody from the courtroom.

Time Line

1. July 13, 2020

   More than 100 homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses were searched in Voronezh and the surrounding area. Over 40 brothers and sisters were taken for interrogation. The ten brothers named above were placed in temporary detention

2. July 14-15, 2020

   All ten brothers were sent to pretrial detention

3. August 3–September 18, 2020

   Brothers Baev, Pankratov, Popov, and Yagupov were released from pretrial detention and placed under house arrest

4. December 1-3, 2020

   Brothers Antyukhin, Galka, Gurskiy, Nerush, Sokolov, and Veselov were released from pretrial detention. Brothers Baev, Pankratov, Popov and Yagupov were released from house arrest

5. December 13, 2021

   The criminal trial began

Profiles

We are encouraged to see the positive results endurance is bringing our brothers and sisters in Russia as they continue to rely on Jehovah.—James 1:4.