explained to Zhigalov and Kudinov

Russian Senior Investigator Maksim Ukrainsky – who launched the criminal case against Zhigalov and Kudinov in August 2022 – defended his decision at the time. “Believing in God is not punishable, but they continued the activity of a banned organisation,” he told Forum 18 from Sevastopol in November 2022. “They attracted others to their organisation.” He said he had explained to Zhigalov and Kudinov that their activity violated the law. “They chose their position”. He did not answer his phone in late January and early February 2025 (see below). On 3 October 2024, the Russian-appointed Crimean Supreme Court in Simferopol increased the sentences of two Jehovah’s Witnesses from Russian-occupied Krasnogvardeiskoe in central Crimea, Yury Gerashchenko and Sergey Parfenovich. A panel of judges accepted the Prosecutor’s arguments that their six-year suspended sentences were “too soft” and changed them to six years in a labour camp. Both have now been transferred to labour camps in Russia (see below). สล็อต เว็บตรง