Name: Cherepanov Yevgeniy Konstantinovich
Date of Birth: July 21, 2004
Current status: accused
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (1)
Time spent in prison: 1 day in a temporary detention facility, 80 day in a pre-trial detention, 177 day Under house arrest
Current restrictions: house arrest

Biography

In the winter of 2025, Yevgeniy Cherepanov arrived in his hometown, Ozersk, from Chelyabinsk, where he was doing alternative civilian service (ACS), to take his mother to a doctor's appointment. Suddenly, law enforcement officers raided their home. During the 2.5-hour interrogation, Yevgeniy was pressured to plead guilty. They arrested him without achieving their goal.

Yevgeniy was born in July 2004 in Ozersk, Chelyabinsk Region. His mother raised him on her own. She worked as a saleswoman, and later as a cleaner of industrial premises. He has a brother who is much older than him.

Yevgeniy has loved sports since childhood. He inherited this passion from his mother, who in her youth liked athletics and played basketball. It was basketball that became his favourite sport: he played on the school team, and then in college.

Being a deeply religious person, Yevgeniy's mother instilled in her son a love for the Bible. Seeing how the Bible's advice had a positive effect on some of his peers, he decided to follow it himself. In 2019, he was baptized as one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Yevgeniy qualified at the Ozersk Technical College, where he trained to be a power supply specialist. However, he has not yet had a chance to work in this field — from November 2024 he has been doing ACS in the regional hospital. He cleaned premises of the surgical suite. The criminal prosecution interrupted his service.

Case History

In early 2025, the Investigative Committee of Ozersk in the Chelyabinsk Region initiated a criminal case against Yevgeniy Cherepanov, Oleg Preobrazhenskiy, Igor Smolnikov and Artem Repin. Their homes were searched. Law enforcement officers used physical violence and threats against some of the men. The believers were detained and placed in the Zlatoust pretrial detention center. All of them were charged with organizing the activity of an extremist organization. In April 2025 they were placed under house arrest.
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