Case History
On an early July morning in 2018, in Vladivostok, masked armed law enforcement officers invaded the apartment of a 90-year-old relative of Dmitriy and Yelena Barmakin. Later, Yelena was charged with extremism and the family’s bank accounts were blocked. The reason for this was her participation in meetings for worship, which were secretly filmed by an FSB agent. In May 2020, the believer’s case went to court, and in September it was returned to the prosecutor’s office. In August 2021, the investigator merged the cases against Yelena and her fellow believers — Yuriy Redozubov, Igor Lonchakov, Lyudviga Katanaeva, Nina Astvatsaturova, Yekaterina Treguba, Yelena Tsorn and the Verigin couple. In June 2022, the case went to court, and in January 2025, the believers received the following sentences: Lonchakov — 7 years imprisonment, Redozubov — 6.5 years imprisonment; Treguba and Katanaeva — 3 years and 4 months suspended; Barmakina, Tsorn and Astvatsaturova — 3 years suspended.