Disabled Person in the Karachayevo-Circassian Republic Sentenced to Imprisonment

On June 23, 2025, the Cherkessk City Court sent Vladimir Fomin, 45, to a penal colony for 4.5 years. Judge Sapar Baychorov found the believer guilty of extremism for talking about the Bible with a local resident. Prior to the verdict, Fomin spent 1 year and 3 months in a pretrial detention center.

At the age of 20, Vladimir became a victim of hatred on religious grounds. Aggressive young people beat the believer right on the territory of the building for worship. The sustained injuries ultimately left him disabled. In February 2024, the home of the Fomin family was searched. Vladimir was placed in a pretrial detention center. He experienced a lack of prescribed medication in detention; his chronic illnesses worsened. During one of the court hearings, he even lost consciousness, so an ambulance had to be called.

Vladimir Fomin after his final statement in the courtroom

The reason for the criminal prosecution of Fomin was conversations about the Bible with a local resident Y. Oncheva in the home of Yelena Menchikova, another believer from Cherkessk, previously given a suspended sentence of 4.5 years on similar charges. Later it became known that Oncheva, on the instructions of the FSB, covertly recorded these conversations.

At one of the court hearings, Vladimir Fomin stated: "Despite the fact that it is not forbidden in the Russian Federation to believe in Jehovah God, the prosecution identifies my religious affiliation and calls it not religious affiliation... but belonging to an organization declared extremist."

In Karachayevo-Circassia, a republic with a population of less than 500,000 people, 13 Jehovah's Witnesses have already faced criminal prosecution for their faith in recent years. In February 2025, the court sentenced one of them to a long prison term.