Two Jehovah's Witnesses* from Gukovo have been released from prison.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," on September 19, 2022, a court in Gukovo sentenced Alexey Gorely and Oleg Shidlovsky to 6.5 years in prison, and Nikita Moiseyev, Alexey Dyadkin, Vladimir Popov, and Yevgeny Razumov to seven years in a general regime penal colony. The appellate and cassation courts upheld the sentences. In November 2025, Oleg Shidlovsky, 56, and Alexey Gorely, 45, were released from a prison colony in the Ulyanovsk Region, having fully served their sentences. Shidlovsky said that he lost sight in one eye because the prison colony lacked the necessary facilities for surgery.

Nikita Moiseyev, 36, and Yevgeny Razumov, 46, were released from Penal Colony No. 3 in Dimitrovgrad on May 18. Their families traveled to the Ulyanovsk region to greet them, a website covering the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses* in Russia reported on May 19.

They spent almost 3.5 years of the seven years sentenced by the court in the penal colony itself, and another 2.5 years in pretrial detention.

In the colony, the believers initially worked in a sewing factory, then Nikita Moiseyev worked in a local store, and Yevgeny Razumov in a galvanic factory. In their free time, they studied English.

Two more of the six convicted Jehovah's Witnesses* from Gukovo—Vladimir Popov and Aleksey Dyadkin—remain in custody, the publication states.

As a reminder, back in October 2021, the plenary session of the Supreme Court of Russia ruled that individual or collective religious practice, religious rites, and ceremonies in themselves should not be considered the activity of an extremist organization unless they contain elements of extremism. However, in practice, state prosecutors ignore this ruling.

Earlier, in October 2020, a court in Kabardino-Balkaria acquitted local Jehovah's Witness* Yuri Zalipaev, who was accused of inciting extremism. In September 2021, the court awarded him 500,000 rubles in compensation, and the prosecutor apologized to the believer for the criminal prosecution. Acquittals for Jehovah's Witnesses* are rare in the Russian judicial system, Yaroslav Sivulsky, a representative of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses, commented on the court's decision at the time.

On April 20, 2017, the Supreme Court of Russia, following a lawsuit filed by the Ministry of Justice, declared the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia* and its 395 branches extremist organizations, banning their activities. The "Caucasian Knot" covers the consequences of this ban on the thematic page "The Ministry of Justice against Jehovah's Witnesses*".

* 396 Russian Jehovah's Witness organizations have been designated as extremist, and their activities in Russia have been banned by court order.

** Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) is banned in Russia.