Biography
Nikolay Kosov and his wife Larisa first faced criminal prosecution back in 2019—then their house was searched, and the head of the family was summoned for interrogation. In 2025, law enforcement officers came to their house again as usual, and this time the couple became defendants in a criminal case.
Nikolay was born in July 1963 in the city of Kolomyia (Ukrainian SSR). He has an elder brother. His father left the family when Nikolay was five, and did not maintain relations with the children. His mother was a nurse in a kindergarten and raised her sons alone. She died in 1993 after a long battle with cancer.
Over the years, Nikolay lived in Gorlovka, in the Stavropol Territory (in Nevinnomyssk), and since 2012 he has been living in Cherkessk, the capital of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic.
As a child, Nikolay loved to read, he especially liked the genres of science fiction and adventure. He also drew and made toys from improvised and natural materials for himself and his friends. After school, the young man made his dream of the sea come true - he entered the department of operation of marine power plants in the city of Nevelsk (Sakhalin Region) and worked for some time as a ship engineer. Later, he returned to Ukraine to take care of his mother.
Nikolay was interested in the Bible from his youth. One day he bought the New Testament and the Psalter. He was so impressed by what he learned about Jesus Christ that he decided not to go to the polls anymore. He explained his position as follows: "I realized that no person who becomes the head of state can be like Jesus was—kind, caring, selfless, able to heal and resurrect."
The man met Jehovah's Witnesses through his friends who were already studying the Bible. The first meeting for worship of Jehovah's Witnesses that Nikolay attended was the Memorial of the death of Jesus Christ. There he saw that all the negative things he had heard about these people were just rumors. About how the Bible influenced his life, the believer said: "The truth helped to get rid of prejudices and prejudices." Nikolay became a Jehovah's Witness in 1996.
Nikolay met Larisa, his wife, in Cherkessk. The couple got married in September 2018. Nikolay has two adult daughters from his first marriage, Larisa also has a daughter. The spouses like to relax in nature, pick mushrooms, receive guests. Nikolay said: "We work together, we study the Bible together. And even a criminal case was opened for two."
Nikolay's relatives and friends are outraged that a kind and calm person with a good reputation is being persecuted for extremism.