The appeal filed in the City of Penza reversed the prison sentence for Vladimir Alushkin. Six believers received a suspended sentence.

September 16, 2020 Penza Regional Court commuted the sentence of Vladimir Alushkin, replacing 6 years in prison with 4 years of suspended sentence. To his wife, Tatiana, and 4 more believers the court left the sentence - 2 years conditionally - in force. The believers did not admit guilt in extremism. The verdict came into force.

Persecution of Penza believers has already lasted for 3 years. Even before the criminal cases were initiated, operatives had been following them for several months, recording that believers had not renounced their religious beliefs after the ban of Jehovah's Witnesses legal entities in Russia and continued to gather for joint Bible studies.

July 15, 2018. Vladimir Alushkin was arrested for the first time. He spent 3 days in a TDF and then 181 days in pre-trial detention center #1 in Penza region.

On January 14, 2019 Alushkin was released from the pre-trial detention center. The court placed him under house arrest, where he spent an extra 11 months. His fellow believers Vladimir Kulyasov, Andrei Magliv (helps his wife take care of her elderly mother) and Denis Timoshin spent 515 days under house arrest).

On December 13, 2019, Alushkin was arrested for the second time. He was taken into custody in the Leninsky District Court of Penza, after Judge Roman Tanchenko announced the decision: Vladimir Alushkin was sentenced to 6 years in prison, his wife, Tatyana, to 2 years of suspended imprisonment. The court also sentenced Galia Olkhova, Denis Timoshin, Andrey Magliv and Vladimir Kulyasov to 2 years of suspended imprisonment. Even before the verdict came into force, Alushkin was transported from Penza to one of the detention facilities in Mordovia.

On March 25, 2020. Vladimir was released from the pre-trial detention center again. This happened after the Penza Regional Court overturned the sentence of December 13 and sent it for a new trial. Vladimir Alushkin (and the rest of the accused) received a preventive measure in the form of subscription on his not leaving.

On July 9, 2020. First Court of Cassation returned Alushkin's case and 5 of his associates for new appeal consideration to Penza regional court. Even before the announcement of the decision of the appeal instance, which softened Alushkin's sentence under part 1 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and left in force the conditional punishment for the rest, the believers were under the subscription about not leaving.

"It is good that the believers will not go to prison. And yet the court unfairly found them guilty of extremism. There are no victims, no harm or even intentions to inflict it. All their guilt is that in the name of their religion there is the word combination "Jehovah's Witnesses", which propaganda methodically covers with myths about a threat to society. Although the Russian authorities themselves have repeatedly assured that this religion is not banned," Yaroslav Sivulsky of the European Jehovah's Witnesses Association commented on the court ruling.

It is noteworthy that on October 1, 2019 the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the UN Human Rights Council declared Vladimir Alushkin's arrest as unlawful. "An appropriate measure of protection," the document says, "would be the unconditional release of Vladimir Alushkin and the granting of his enforceable right to receive compensation and damages.