One of Jehovah’s Witnesses Arrested During Searches in Seversk. Former Prisoners of Conscience Among the Victims of Raid

On June 17, 2026, law enforcement officers in Seversk carried out searches of the homes of 11 local Jehovah's Witnesses. Vladimir Kompaniets, 60, was placed in a pretrial detention center.

The investigative actions affected believers ranging in age from 41 to 73. Electronic devices, books, bank cards, and personal savings were seized.

Among those whose homes were searched were Aleksey Yershov and Sergey Belousov. After several years of investigation and court hearings, both received suspended sentences of imprisonment in 2022. "The previous search and the trials exhausted us emotionally. We had only just begun to recover when everything started all over again," Belousov's wife said. "But my husband and I felt calm fairly quickly."

Seversk is a small town about 15 kilometers from Tomsk. The persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses here has been ongoing since 2020; six believers have already faced criminal prosecution, one of whom is held in a penal colony.