A Series of Searches at Homes of Jehovah's Witnesses Took Place in Stavropol and Karachay-Cherkessia

On November 23, 2021, the reports came that searches had been initiated in the village of Mednogorskiy (Karachay-Cherkessia), in Dmitriy and Ilya Pasynkovs' as well as two other women believers’ homes. Meanwhile, in Stavropol, security forces invaded the house of a relative of the Pasynkovs.

During the searches, a book, two flash drives and an old tablet were seized from the Pasynkov family. Nothing was confiscated from the women, the law enforcement officers simply handed them the investigator's order for a search, which was carried out without a court order. According to the believers, the investigator Andreyuk motivated this by the fact that "the search cannot be delayed."

This is the second series of special events against believers in Mednogorskoye in 2021: in January, FSB officers raided at least 3 apartments of the Witnesses, but then there was no active development of criminal prosecution.

Searches of Jehovah's Witnesses in Karachay-Cherkessia have been going on since 2016 - then, as part of an administrative case, the premises of residents of Mednogorsk and the village of Kurdzhinovo, who were suspected of distributing "extremist literature", were examined. In 2019, security forces searched 42-year-old Indira, who is raising four children alone. In December of the same year, after a series of raids, 43-year-old Albert Batchaev was arrested and his case is being heard in court. In 2020, a group of security officials led by V. Drakin, an investigator of the FSB Directorate for Karachay-Cherkessia, conducted a search of a 56-year-old believer. Currently, two believers from Karachay-Cherkessia are under investigation and under recognizance not to leave.