Illustrative photo. Source: photo / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Actions of Law Enforcement Officers

In the Karelian outback, law enforcement officers brought a woman to talk about God in order to invade her with a search

Karelia

On December 3, 2019, a 61-year-old believer was searched in the village of Wärtsilä (Karelia). Feigning an interest in religion, the agent sent knocked on her door and began asking questions about how to find the truth.

Two uniformed policemen and a woman in civilian clothes entered the believer's apartment. According to them, a denunciation was received from neighbors that songs were being sung in her apartment. The hostess told the security forces that she was a former music worker, that she had an accordion and there was nothing unnatural in the fact that she was playing music. Nevertheless, she was searched, her Bible, personal diaries, spiritual literature, and even a magnet hanging on a refrigerator were seized. Security officials also asked the woman to unlock electronic devices, but she refused.

This is not the first time that law enforcement officers have preyed on older women. In Arkhangelsk, a criminal case was opened against 78-year-old Kaleria Mamykina for sharing her religious beliefs with others. In Vladivostok, 6 elderly women (Raisa Usanova, Nina Purge, Nailya Kogai, Elena Zaishchuk, Lyubov Galaktionova, Nadezhda Anoykina) were in the dock. In Spassk-Dalny, 2 pensioners, Olga Panyuta and Olga Opaleva, are prosecuted, and the latter had a stroke right in the convoy car. Women of retirement age are also subject to criminal prosecution in Khakassia, Khabarovsk, Rostov-on-Don, the Moscow region and Kamchatka.