Name: Ryzhkova Svetlana Anatoliyevna
Date of Birth: June 22, 1953
Current status: convicted person
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (2), 282.3 (1)
Sentence: penalty in the form of a fine in the amount of 480,000 rubles

Biography

Svetlana Ryzhkova, a resident of Shuya (Ivanovo region), was prosecuted for her religion. What do we know about this woman?

Svetlana was born in the village of Aristovo, Shuisky District, Ivanovo Region, in 1953. He has a sister and two sons. Svetlana's parents have always been conscientious about work. His father worked as a carpenter in a factory, and later as a foreman on a collective farm, and his mother worked as a weaver all her life. They also instilled a love of work in their daughters. Svetlana received the profession of a nurse and has been working in this field for several decades.

Svetlana's childhood was spent in the village, she loves nature very much. With her friends, she often disappeared on the river, picked mushrooms and berries. Svetlana has always loved gardening, and to this day she spends her free time in her garden, planting and watering.

After school, Svetlana and her whole family moved to the city of Shuya, where she graduated from a medical college. For some time she lived in St. Petersburg.

In the mid-2000s, Svetlana became interested in the Bible, which unexpectedly and paradoxically led to criminal prosecution. She experienced a strong shock on April 19, 2018, when they came to her house with a search. To preserve the feelings of relatives and friends, she decided not to devote them to the details of the criminal case.

Case History

Wiretapping, deploying a provocateur, hidden video recording in the homes of believers — that is how the prosecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the town of Shuya began in the spring of 2017. A year later, the Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case against peaceful believer Dmitriy Mikhaylov under three articles for extremism. In 2018, homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses were searched: believers were treated rudely, pressured, and even a 10-year-old girl was interrogated. New defendants appeared in the case: Yelena Mikhaylova, Svetlana Ryzhkova, Svetlana Shishina and Aleksey Arkhipov. Mikhaylov spent 6 months in a pretrial detention center. The case was returned twice to the investigator for revision by the procecutor and by the judge. The consideration of the case on its merits began in May 2022. In January 2024 the court gave its guilty vedict, fining the believers: Arkhipov 380,000, Shishina 400,000, Ryzhkova 480,000, Mikhaylova 560,000, and Dmitriy Mikhaylov 950,000 rubles.