Name: Nikitin Ivan Viktorovich
Date of Birth: January 20, 1976
Current status: convicted person
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (2)
Current restrictions: obligation to appear
Sentence: imprisonment for a period of 2 years conditionally with a probation period of 3 years, with deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to leadership and participation in the work of public organizations, associations for a period of 2 years

Biography

In May 2023, after a series of searches, Ivan Nikitin learned that he had become a defendant in a criminal case for his faith. Law enforcement officers accused him of extremism because of peaceful talk about the Bible.

Ivan was born in January 1976 in Amursk (Khabarovsk Territory). He has an elder brother and a younger brother and sister. The parents have been dead for a long time. From the 5th grade of school until graduation, Ivan was fond of rifle shooting.

At the school, Ivan received the profession of a welder, after which he worked as a plumber. Two years later, he got a job in his profession, and in 2000 he moved to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where he continued to work as a welder. In his free time, Ivan likes to fish on mountain rivers, embroider, grow grapes in the country.

Ivan met his future wife at work. They got married in November 2008. The Nikitins have an adult son. Galiya is a plasterer-painter by profession. In her spare time, she loves to grow flowers.

In 2007, Galiya began to study the Bible. After some time, Ivan heard a familiar name—Jehovah. He once recognized it from a movie. So Ivan became interested in what is written in the Bible. Having received answers to questions that had long worried him from this book, in the spring of 2009 he became one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Relatives were worried about the fact that due to criminal prosecution, the believer could be left without work and lose the opportunity to provide for his family financially, but the management at work treated Ivan with understanding.

Case History

In May 2023, civilians in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, as well as the village of Khurba and the village of Molodezhniy, were subjected to night searches because of their religion. The investigation initiated a criminal case against 10 believers: Vasiliy Bondarev and his mother Irina, Sergey Sachnev and his wife Ulita, Nikolay Kovadnev, Ivan Nikitin, Mikhail Dorofeev, Radion Shitov, Marina Voytko and Svetlana Zharkova. They were charged with involvement in the activities of a banned organization. In 2024, the prosecutor’s office returned the case to the investigator twice. In October of the same year, it went to court. All the defendants were included in the Rosfinmonitoring list, which made it difficult for them to pay bills and dispose of their property. In October 2025, the court sentenced Dorofeev, Kovadnev and Shitov to 6 years of suspended sentence, and the Bondarevs, the Sachnevs, Zharkova, Voytko and Nikitin to 2 years of suspended sentence. Among the convicts are 5 people over 60.
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