Dmitriy Kuzin and Roman Makhnev at the courthouse. February, 2025.
Dmitriy Kuzin and Roman Makhnev at the courthouse. February, 2025.
On March 13, 2026, Judge Irina Tarelicheva of the Kaluzhskiy District Court sentenced 50‑year‑old Roman Makhnev and 61‑year‑old Dmitriy Kuzin to six and a half years of imprisonment. They were branded as extremists for meeting with fellow believers, singing songs together, praying, and reading the Bible.
Makhnev and Kuzin are graduates of Bauman Moscow State Technical University. Dmitriy is a mechanical engineer specializing in turbine engineering, and Roman is a design and process engineer in radio‑electronic equipment. They have been friends for almost 30 years.
Criminal prosecution began back in 2018. According to Roman, the security services kept them under surveillance and tapped their phones. "We were practically waiting every day for them to come for us," Makhnev says. In June 2019, searches were carried out in their apartments; they were detained and sent for six months to a pre‑trial detention center, and then placed under house arrest.
"While in custody, Roman learned that his father had died," Dmitriy Kuzin recounted. "The investigator did not let him attend the funeral. Later, the parental home in the village burned down. After he was released from the detention center, his mother died. He took care of his grandmother, who is about 100 years old... Despite a chain of tragic events, Roman did not lose his optimism. I admire his courage. He is a true friend, a caring shepherd, and an exemplary head of the family."
Svetlana, Dmitriy's wife, told the court: "I have a wonderful husband—very loving, caring. And that extends not only to me but to all our relatives, to his parents, and, really, to people in general." A neighbor long acquainted with Dmitriy and his parents described the believer as an intelligent person and an excellent family man.
The investigation and trial of Makhnev and Kuzin in Kaluga lasted more than six years—one of the longest in the context of the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. From the very beginning, numerous violations were evident: planting of banned literature, degrading treatment of the believers themselves and their family members, and the inability to receive necessary medical care. Dmitriy Kuzin also faced discrimination from the court: at a hearing on the measure of restraint, the judge did not allow the believer to defend himself and, in effect, mocked him—something later acknowledged by the appellate instance. As the trial progressed, other violations came to light. For example, expert examinations were carried out by specialists who, at the time they issued their opinions, did not hold diplomas.
In July 2024, the European Court of Human Rights recognized the prosecution of Roman Makhnev as well as other believers as unlawful.
