Name: Popov Vyacheslav Alekseyevich
Date of Birth: September 19, 1974
Current status: who has served the main sentence
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (1)
Time spent in prison: 1 day in a temporary detention facility, 445 day in a pre-trial detention
Sentence: sentence in the form of 1 year and 10 months of imprisonment with serving a sentence in a correctional colony of general regime, released from punishment in connection with the actual service

Biography

Vyacheslav Popov from Sochi ended up in jail after a mass raid on believers on October 10, 2019. Despite the absence of victims and real evidence of guilt in the criminal case, on December 18, 2020, the court sentenced Vyacheslav to imprisonment for 1 year and 10 months. Since the believer had already served this term in a pre-trial detention center, he was released on December 29, 2020. In general, he spent almost 1 year and 3 months in prison.

Vyacheslav was born in 1974, his hometown is Tomsk, where he was born and raised. Parents worked in a factory. Vyacheslav has an older sister Lyudmila. Since childhood, Vyacheslav was fond of drawing, graduated from art school, and when in the early 90s many people had computers, he began to master them with enthusiasm. He graduated from the Tomsk University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, later worked as a designer-architect. Extremely positively characterized by leadership at work.

He is fond of swimming, sailing, kayaking and snowboarding, loves to go to the forest and go to the mountains. Despite the fact that many of his peers were addicted to alcohol and involved in crime, Vyacheslav always tried to do what had a good effect on him.

With his future wife Yulia, Vyacheslav studied at the same school, and in 1998 they got married. Over time, children appeared in the family: the eldest daughter and two sons. In 2010, Vyacheslav moved his family to Sochi, where there was a more suitable climate.

Vyacheslav's wife Yulia was the first to become interested in the Bible. In it, she found answers to questions that had long worried her: who is God? Why so much injustice? Why do people die? Over time, Vyacheslav also decided to get acquainted with the Holy Scriptures. After his father's death, he drew comfort and support from the biblical hope of the resurrection of the dead.

Vyacheslav has a close-knit family, the eldest daughter helps her father work with design, the youngest son also likes to build houses, while toys. The whole family loves skiing and boat trips.

Vyacheslav is the only breadwinner in the family, so after his arrest the family was left without a livelihood. The children are shocked by what is happening, the wife has to take sedatives to cope with stress. The relatives of the family cannot understand how decent people can be persecuted simply because of their faith.

Case History

In October 2019, special services conducted 36 raids in the Krasnodar Territory, during which Nikolay Kuzichkin and Vyacheslav Popov were detained. Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Krasnodar Territory accuses believers of convening and conducting worship services. Judge Nikolay Shevelev decided to detain both men for their convictions. Despite the rapidly deteriorating health, elderly Nikolay Kuzichkin was left in a pre-trial detention center, which was a serious threat to his life for six months. Vyacheslav’s large family was also going through difficult times when the head of the family was in custody and could not take care of his relatives. Judge of the Khostinsky District Court of Sochi, Yuriy Pilipenko, found the believers guilty of organizing the activities of an extremist organization and sentenced Nikolay to imprisonment for 1 year and 1 month, and Vyacheslav — 1 year and 10 months. Since the believers had already served these terms in a pre-trial detention center, they were released on December 18 and 29, 2020, respectively.