Biography
Sergey Petrov has been married for more than 40 years, and he worked at the same place for 33 years. Then one day everything changed abruptly — he ended up in pretrial detention because of his faith.
Sergey was born in the city of Syzran in the Kuybyshev (now Samara) Region, but he spent his youth in Kazakhstan, in the small town of Taldy-Kurgan. He is the oldest of five children: he has one brother and three sisters. Their mother worked as a decorator, and their father was a mechanic at the airport.
Sergey's parents tried to instill in their children a love for hard work. From childhood, Sergey was fascinated by technology and radio electronics. He built many things and learned how to repair bicycles and motorcycles. As a young man, he graduated from vocational and later from a technical college with honors. He continued studying electrical engineering and electronics. For a while, he worked as a teacher of physics, technical drawing and crafts. For the last 30 years — right up until his arrest — he worked as a Field Service Technician for a network of gas stations, calibrating fuel dispensers.
In December 1983, Sergey married Raisa. In the early 1990s, the young family — Sergey, Raisa, and their two children, a son and a daughter — moved to Talmenka, where they have lived ever since. The Petrovs' son trained as a technical vocational teacher, while their daughter became both an bookkeeper and a hairdresser. Both now have families of their own.
Sergey enjoys growing grapes and making homemade wine. He loves fishing and making shashlik. With his family, he enjoys spending time outdoors, tending the garden, cycling, Nordic walking, and spending time with friends.
The first person in the family to learn about the Bible was Sergey's mother — that happened in 1970. While raising her children, she tried to instill in them a love for Bible principles. Sergey meditated on his mother's words and reflected on the remarkable way the world around him is designed. This convinced him that there must be a Creator. In time, Sergey decided to become one of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Due to Sergey's arrest, Raisa lost the support of her loving husband and the sole breadwinner: her pension is small, and her husband provided most of the household's income. Sergey also suffers from chronic health conditions and needs daily medication, including prescription drugs — something difficult to manage in a pretrial detention center.
For those who have known Sergey for many years — his relatives, neighbors, and acquaintances — it is hard to understand why he is being criminally prosecuted. They describe him as a kind, approachable and law-abiding person.