About 25 families of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the settlements of Maina and Cheremushki (Khakassia) were subjected to searches, and at least 45 people were interrogated. Three believers — Viktor Timoshchenko, Aleksandr Gorev, and Yevgeny Bagin — have been taken into custody. Investigative actions initiated by Russia’s FSB have been ongoing since September 23, 2025, the European Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses reported to Kasparov.Ru on September 30.
Maina and Cheremushki are workers’ settlements with a combined population of about 12,000 people, located on opposite banks of the Yenisei River, near the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station. During the searches, which began at 6 a.m., authorities seized believers’ phones and electronic devices. The following day, Jehovah’s Witnesses from Maina were interrogated in Sayanogorsk, and those from Cheremushki were questioned closer to midnight.
Timoshchenko, Gorev, and Bagin were taken about 100 kilometers from their homes to Abakan, the capital of Khakassia. They were charged with organizing worship meetings and, by court decision, were placed in a pre-trial detention center.
It should be recalled that in 2017, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation declared the Administrative Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia and its 395 regional organizations extremist and ordered their liquidation. At the same time, the Jehovah’s Witness faith itself is not banned in Russia, and its rituals include joint worship services.
The persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses began when they continued to pray together and sing psalms.
Since 2017, the number of searches carried out against Jehovah’s Witnesses has exceeded 2,000, but such large-scale operations are relatively rare. Previous major raids — some of which were code-named “Armageddon” and “Judgment Day” — took place in the Jewish Autonomous Region, annexed Crimea, as well as in Voronezh and Bryansk regions and in the Altai Territory.
About a thousand people have faced criminal prosecution, with sentences reaching up to eight years in prison and heavy fines.
