Name: Alekseyev Igor Valeriyevich
Date of Birth: July 3, 1977
Current status: convicted person
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (1)
Current restrictions: recognizance agreement

Biography

In April 2022, Igor Alekseyev, a peaceful resident of Yoshkar-Ola, became a defendant in a criminal case only because of his religious views. Law enforcement officers  regarded discussing the Bible among friends as organizing the activity of an extremist organization.

Igor was born in 1977 in the village of Arzebelyak (Mari El). He has a younger sister. Their father is no longer alive and their mother is retired. In his youth, Igor liked skiing. For his vocational education he trained in 3 professions: driver, electrician and bricklayer. He works as a bricklayer. In his free time, Igor likes handcrafting things.

At the age of 32, Igor began studying the Bible. He was impressed by the teaching that  people are not tormented in hell after death. Igor realized that he wanted to live according to the teachings of Christ and serve God, which he did from 2009.

Igor met his future wife Nataliya at a relative's wedding. They got married in 2006. Nataliya cleans private apartments, enjoys singing, playing the piano and knitting. The couple have a son and a daughter. The Alekseyevs used to live in Samara, and then moved to Yoshkar-Ola to help their parents.

Nataliya has shared her husband's religious views since 2011. In the Bible, she found answers to her questions: why people die and why there is so much injustice in life?

Family and friends are trying to support the Alekseyevs during this difficult time.

Case History

In April 2022, the FSB initiated a criminal case against Jehovah’s Witnesses from Yoshkar-Ola. Searches were conducted at nine addresses, and law enforcement officers used force against one of the believers, Yevgeniy Plotnikov. He was detained and subsequently placed in a pretrial detention center. In August 2022, Yevgeniy was transferred to house arrest, and in October, he was placed under a ban on certain actions. In December of the same year, the FSB investigator began charging other residents of the city: Sergey Kulikov and his son Aleksey, Eduard Kapitonov and his son Ilya, Igor Alekseyev, Vladimir Usenko, Denis Petrov, Ilya Buryi and Sergey Naymushin. The investigator regarded practicing their faith as actions of an extremist nature and placed them under a recognizance agreement. In October 2024, the case went to court, 3 months later the prosecutor requested 9 years in a penal colony for the believers, and in February of the same year, the court sentenced them to fines: Plotnikov 500,000 rubles, and the rest 600,000 rubles.
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