Gevorg Gevorkyan with his new Russian passport. Igor Petrov.

Gevorg Gevorkyan with his new Russian passport. Igor Petrov.

Gevorg Gevorkyan with his new Russian passport. Igor Petrov.

Legal Victories

Two Convicted Jehovah's Witnesses Achieve Annulment of Decision to Revoke Citizenship

Nizhegorod Region,   Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area

In June 2026, within a few days of each other, courts declared unlawful the decisions to revoke the citizenship of two Jehovah's Witnesses who had faced criminal prosecution for their faith. On June 3, the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court reinstated the rights of Gevorg Gevorkyan, and on June 9, the Court of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area declared the revocation of Igor Petrov's citizenship unlawful.

Gevorg was born in Tkvarcheli (Abkhazia). In August 1992, when an armed conflict began there, Gevorg's family barely made it through checkpoints and reached Adler. Soon Gevorg was issued a refugee certificate, and in April 1995, he was granted Russian citizenship and received a passport. Since then, Gevorg has lived in Nizhny Novgorod. The believer has been married for over 25 years. He works as a truck driver.

Gevorg first faced prosecution for his faith in 2019, when law enforcement officers searched his home and interrogated him. Later, a criminal case was initiated against him. Gevorg was given a 6-year suspended sentence. In December 2024, the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Nizhny Novgorod Region issued a decision to revoke his citizenship.

The ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Kazakhstan issued the same decision regarding Igor Petrov. This happened in November 2025 — 9 months after the verdict of the Surgut City Court entered into force, under which he was given a 6-year and 5-months suspended sentence. Igor was born in the Chuvash Republic and grew up in Shymkent (Kazakhstan). In 1994, he moved to Surgut. For many years, Igor worked as a carpenter and bricklayer; he now works as a truck driver. Igor has been married to Larisa, a Russian citizen, for over 25 years; the couple have a son.

In the cases of both believers, the courts established that they obtained Russian citizenship through registration under the law, not through naturalization, and concluded that criminal prosecution cannot serve as a legal basis for revoking the Russian citizenship of Gevorkyan and Petrov.

Revoking citizenship is a common way to exert pressure on persecuted Jehovah's Witnesses. Among those who have served sentences for their faith and faced such treatment are Feliks Makhammadiyev, Konstantin Bazhenov, Rustam Seidkuliev, and Rustam Diarov. They were deported after release.

Gevorkyan case in Nizhny Novgorod

Case History
In the summer of 2019, Gevorg Gevorkyan, a resident of Nizhny Novgorod, was searched and interrogated and was named as a witness in the case of Malyanov and four other believers. After 2.5 years, his criminal case was separated into a different proceeding. Gevorkyan was accused of extremism only because of his religion. In August 2021, he was given a recognizance agreement. In December 2021, the case went to court. At the first court session, the lawyer found a new document in the case file that had been arbitrarily added. The judge returned the case to the prosecutor. In July 2022, a retrial of the case by a different judge began. In January 2023, he gave Gevorkyan a 6-year suspended sentence. The appeal upheld this verdict. In December 2024, the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Nizhny Novgorod Region decided to terminate his citizenship of the Russian Federation, but in June 2026, the believer was restored to his rights by a court decision.
Timeline

Persons in case

Gevorkyan
Gevorg

Criminal case

Region:
Nizhegorod Region
Locality:
Nizhny Novgorod
Suspected of:
According to the investigation, he conducted a collective religious service containing an interpretation of the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses
Court case number:
42101220089000653
Initiated:
November 12, 2021
Current case stage:
the verdict entered into force
Investigating:
Department of Internal Affairs of the Investigative Unit of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Main Directorate of the MIA of Russia for the Nizhny Novgorod Region
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation:
282.2 (1)
Court case number:
1-17/2023 (1-490/2022; 1-109/2022; 1-796/2021)
Court:
Avtozavodskiy District Court of the City of Nizhny Novgorod
Judge of the Court of First Instance:
Maksim Sirotkin
Case History

The Case of Loginov and Others in Surgut

Case History
In February 2019, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation initiated a criminal case against 18 men and 1 woman from Surgut (among them was a man mistakenly taken for one of Jehovah’s Witnesses). Their homes were searched. During the interrogations, 7 believers were subjected to violence. Artur Severinchik was sent to the pre-trial detention center for 29 days, and Yevgeniy Fedin and Sergey Loginov—for 56. Timofey Zhukov was unlawfully placed in a psychiatric hospital for 14 days. Believers filed complaints about the use of torture with the Investigative Committee, the ECHR and the Commissioner for Human Rights, a press conference was held with the participation of human rights defenders, but none of the law enforcement officers was brought to justice. In October 2021, the materials of the case, which in 2020 was separated into a different proceeding, went to court. Two years later, the court sentenced all believers to a suspended term from 4 to 7 years. In February 2025, the court of appeal upheld this verdict. A few months later, Igor Petrov learned that he had been deprived of Russian citizenship. He challenged this, and in June 2026, the Court of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area reinstated his rights.
Timeline

Persons in case

Kim
Artem
Boronos
Vyacheslav
Burenesku
Vasily
Fedin
Evgeny
Fefilov
Victor
Gargalyk
Saveliy
Petrov
Igor
Kayryak
Evgeny
Kobotov
Igor
Logins
Sergey
Plekhov
Aleksey
Romashov
Paul
Rysikov
Leonid
Severinchik
Arthur
Shepel
Viola
Trifonov
Igor
Volosnikov
Sergey
Zhukov
Timofey

Criminal case

Region:
Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area
Locality:
Surgut
Suspected of:
delivered talks, engaged in the public preaching activity with local Jehovah's Witnesses, conducted meetings with 'pioneers', 'elders', and 'ministerial servants', including aiming at organizing the activity of the 'elders' in the 'Vzletnoye Congregation'
Court case number:
42002007709000023
Initiated:
February 11, 2019
Current case stage:
the verdict entered into force
Investigating:
Investigative Department for the city of Surgut of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation:
282.2 (1), 282.3 (1), 282.2 (2)
Court case number:
1-27/2023 (1-130/2022; 1-1348/2021)
Court:
Surgut City Court
Judge:
Dmitriy Lyupin
Case History
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