Fourth Verdict Within a Month in Vyselki. Vladimir Lepskiy Given Suspended Sentence for His Faith

On October 24, 2025, Yelizaveta Proskuryakova, judge of the Vyselkovskiy District Court, gave Vladimir Lepskiy, 59, a 2-year suspended sentence. The believer was charged for "reading religious books aloud," as stated in the decision to initiate the case.

Vladimir worked in the railway industry for more than 20 years: he was a rail yard coordinator. He has been one of Jehovah's Witnesses for almost 30 years. In February 2022, the homes of believers in Kuban were searched en masse, which marked the beginning of the prosecution of 15 local residents. Among them was Lepskiy. The search in the house of Vladimir and his wife, Olga, lasted 7 hours. The believer recalls: "People in camouflage entered the courtyard and knocked on our door. My Olga was scared, she was talking on the phone with her grandchildren at the time." Law enforcement officers turned everything upside down, including the bed and looked through all our documents.

A criminal case against Lepskiy was initiated 2 years later — then he was no longer living in Vyselki, but had to return. "In the village we don't have an apartment or a house. Friends helped us to find an affordable apartment and supported us financially. We would not have coped on our own," Vladimir remembered. In his final statement, alluding to his involuntary relocation he said: "I could have not turned up, I could have hidden, and no one would have found me. But I came because I do not consider myself guilty. I believe in Jehovah God and I am his Witness."

The court considered the believer's case for a year. "I look at what I am going through as a new assignment from God: to witness about Him in the courts," said Vladimir about his frame of mind during this difficult period of his life and added: "My wife Olga noticed that I have become calmer and more controlled. The examples of my fellow believers who have gone through all this mean a lot."

The population of the village of Vyselki is less than 20,000. However, 11 criminal cases against Jehovah's Witnesses have already passed through the local district court. Judge Yelizaveta Proskuryakova issued guilty verdicts in five of them.