Updated: March 18, 2024
Name: Puyda Ivan Grigoryevich
Date of Birth: November 5, 1978
Current status: convicted person
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (1), 282.3 (1)
Time spent in prison: 2 day in a temporary detention facility, 126 day in a pre-trial detention, 173 day Under house arrest
Current restrictions: Recognizance agreement
Sentence: punishment in the form of 7 years of imprisonment, with deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to the organization, management and participation in the work of public religious organizations and associations for a term of 7 years, with restriction of liberty for a term of 1 year, a sentence of imprisonment shall be considered suspended with a probationary period of 5 years

Biography

Ivan Grigorievich Puida was born in 1978 in the village of Kvitok (Irkutsk region) in a large believing family. Ivan has six younger brothers and a sister.

As a child, Ivan loved to read, played the accordion, dreamed of traveling. After graduating from school, he began working as a driver, lived and worked in different places: in Nizhneudinsk (Irkutsk region), Krasnoyarsk, Ulan-Ude, Khabarovsk.

In Krasnoyarsk, Ivan met a girl named Anastasia, a dentist by education. They got married in 2005. Ivan and Anastasia love to travel, play board games, spend time together. Ivan's wife and other relatives are shocked that in a civilized country, peace-loving citizens are thrown behind bars as "extremists".

Case History

After a series of searches in Magadan in May 2018, Konstantin Petrov, Yevgeny Zyablov and Sergey Yerkin were placed in a pre-trial detention center. On the same day in Khabarovsk, Ivan Puyda was searched. He was arrested and then taken 1600 km away to the Magadan pre-trial detention center. The believers spent two to four months behind bars, and then were placed under house arrest. In March 2019, the FSB conducted another series of searches. The number of defendants in the case later reached 13, including six women, including the elderly. The investigator regarded the holding of peaceful worship services as organizing the activities of an extremist organization, participating in it and financing it. In almost four years of investigation, the case against 13 believers grew to 66 volumes. It went to court in March 2022. At the hearings, it became clear that the case was based on the testimony of a secret witness - an FSB informant who kept secret records of peaceful worship. In March 2024, the believers were given suspended sentences from 3 to 7 years.