"Have Bible Principles Really Become Extremist?" Pensioner From Karachayevo-Circassia Given Suspended Sentence

On October 15, 2025, Aslanbek Tuarshev, judge of the Khabezskiy District Court, gave 60-year-old Tatyana Pasynkova a 4-year suspended sentence for participating in the activity of an extremist organization. Following her son Aleksey and his wife Yuliya, Tatyana was convicted for her religious beliefs.

Tatyana is a retired plant breeder. She raised three sons on her own. "Have fundamental [Bible] principles really become outdated or suddenly radical and extremist? Life depends on them! They are the moral benchmark, they have withstood the test of time... I never abandoned my children; I also never abandoned my parents, but I cared for them and loved them until they died. And is that what I'm being judged for?.. For raising my sons as worthy members of society despite having lived a difficult life?" said Tatyana Pasynkova in her final statement.

She has been under the close attention of law enforcement officers since 2021 — her home was searched five times. One of the searches she remembers especially well: "I opened the door wearing my nightdress and slippers. There were eight masked people in the courtyard. They had machine guns, pistols, a grenade hung on one side, handcuffs on the other. I was confused: "Oh, so many of you!" I asked them to put their weapons away." She felt unwell — was having difficulty breathing and started shaking. She had to call an ambulance. Tatyana has serious problems with her heart and other internal organs. The stress caused by the prosecution affected her health "not in the best way" she said.

Tatyana often noticed that she and her family were under surveillance by her informant neighbors. "They looked through the fence into the windows, brazenly took photos and videos, for example, me walking with my grandson... It was both appalling and ridiculous when an informant drove a car around his garden and filmed us planting potatoes," she recalls.

At the same time, Tatyana is not afraid to tell others about her prosecution: "I say directly: a criminal case has been initiated against me, a trial is underway, I am being tried for reading the Bible, for being one of Jehovah's Witnesses." People's reaction, she said, was often surprise: "How can you prosecute someone for his faith?"

During these difficult times, Tatyana felt the love and support of people who care. When a hailstorm damaged the roof and windows of the Pasynkovs' house, friends came to the rescue: a couple from Krasnodar helped to repair the roof, another, from St. Petersburg, to replace the windows.

Tatyana considers any trials temporary: "I taught my sons that you don't need to run away from difficulties, you need to overcome them. Hope is my lifeline. I look forward to the time when my grandson Timofey, who has a disability, will start talking, and we will have a heartfelt conversation with him."

The prosecution of Tatyana Pasynkova and her family is not the only case in today's Russia when Jehovah's Witnesses of different generations find themselves in the dock.