Biography
Ivan Starikov was born in January 1975 in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. He lived in Krasnoyarsk and Uyar. His parents worked in a factory; now they are retired. As a child, Ivan studied piano at a music school and was good at singing.
Ivan qualified as an electrician and gas welder and worked in this field at various enterprises and later as a mechanic. Before his arrest, he was self-employed and repaired shoes. He did not complete military service due to a spinal injury.
In the early 1990s, Ivan was baptized as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. In 2010, he married Yelena. Ivan has an adult daughter; his son died at the age of 9 from leukemia. The couple have no children together.
Case History
In October 2025, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation initiated a criminal case against residents of the Uyarskiy and Rybinskiy districts of Krasnoyarsk Territory. The investigation interpreted peaceful meetings for worship as organizing the activity of an extremist organization, participating in it, and involving others in it. Searches were conducted in the homes of the believers. Viktor Kononov and Aflatun Safarov were placed in custody; two elderly women—Amaliya Malchugova and Tatyana Barakhtenko—were required to sign a recognizance agreement. In February 2026, Sergey Soroka, Aleksandr Murlin, and Ivan Starikov were placed in a pretrial detention center. On the same day, Aleksandr and Zakhar Vakarev were detained at a Moscow airport and subsequently required to sign a recognizance agreement. All the believers held in custody were later transferred to house arrest, and then to a ban on certain actions.