Five Years of Imprisonment Are Over. Valeriy Rogozin, 64, Served His Sentence for His Faith

Valeriy Rogozin, the third of the convicted Jehovah's Witnesses from Volgograd, was released from a penal colony in Udmurtia on April 7, 2026. The long years of separation from his wife Marina are now behind them—the couple has been married for more than 40 years.

"I feel wonderful! At last, I'm among my friends. Even though I always felt at home through letters," Valeriy said after his release.

Rogozin is a former military pilot; before his arrest, he worked as a design engineer. In May 2019, Valeriy was detained at his workplace and sent to a pretrial detention center for seven months in a criminal case on extremism charges. After the verdict was announced, the believer was once again taken behind bars. "It was hard to be in a cell where three out of four inmates smoked. It's impossible to get used to conditions in a detention center—you can only adapt to them," Valeriy recalled. Letters were a great source of support for him: "Each one was like a breath of fresh air in a smoke‑filled cell... When you feel the support of God and friends, you can endure any conditions," he noted.

After the sentence came into force, Valeriy was transferred to Udmurtia, some 1,200 kilometers from home. In prison, Rogozin worked in a sewing workshop, and his work was recognized several times with bonuses. Shortly before his release, Valeriy reached retirement age, so he was no longer required to work. This allowed him to devote more time to reading the Bible and corresponding with others.

The last defendant in the Volgograd case against Jehovah's Witnesses, Denis Peresunko, is expected to be released in June 2026.