Биография

From childhood Valeriya was involved with music — she played the violin and studied singing. When Valeriya was ten years old her father died. Her mother brought her up on stories from the Bible; Valeriya reads the Holy Book with pleasure. As a teenager she finished make-up artist courses and after graduating secondary school she studied to be a hairstylist. She loves baking and making interior decorative items from concrete.

In 2015 Valeriya married Sergey Rayman, a kindred spirit.

In the early morning of 25 July 2018 armed Special Forces broke down the door to their flat, using crowbars in full view of the surveillance cameras. The young couple was arrested; they learned that a criminal case had been initiated against them because of their faith. Valeriya was held two days in a temporary holding facility, after which the court imposed a preventive measure on her — a ban on leaving the house at night, on the use of means of communication, on sending and receiving mail and on communication with “persons who profess the teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses”).

What happened has greatly affected the emotional and physical condition of Sergey and Valeriya. Their families and friends worry about them and try to support them.