Name: Dutkin Vladimir Vitaliyevich
Date of Birth: May 20, 1963
Current status: who has served the main sentence
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (1)
Sentence: penalty in the form of a fine of 500,000 rubles

Biography

In 2020 57-year-old Vladimir Dutkin from Cheboksary suffered a lot of hardships. In June he lost his only younger sister, who died of cancer, and in November security forces came to him with a search. A criminal case was opened against the believer under an „extremist“ article.

Vladimir was born in May 1963 in Novoaltaisk (Altai Territory) in the family of a carpenter and a cashier-seller. In early childhood, he moved with his parents to Cheboksary. Father died in 1992.

Vladimir grew up as a versatile child: he played volleyball, football, hockey, went skiing, took part in amateur performances and olympiads in mathematics, played the guitar. After school he worked as a locksmith at a factory, a stone-cutter-graniter, an entrepreneur, was a secretary of the Komsomol organization, played volleyball and took part in humor competitions. In 1995 he received a higher education in economics with a degree of an accountant. From 1998 to the present day he has been working as an insurance agent. Vladimir still leads an active lifestyle: he goes in for sports, loves to sing and dance with friends.

Vladimir began to think about the meaning of life when he was 25 years old. At 31 he began looking for answers to his questions and found them in the Bible. „The prophecies convinced me how accurately they came true. This clearly confirmed that God was behind them,“ says the believer. At the age of 39, he became one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

In 1996, Vladimir had a daughter, Juliette, in marriage. After the divorce, the daughter stayed with her father. She graduated from the College of Communications and works as an advertising specialist. Juliette loves to read since childhood. When she realized that without the Creator there could be no such order in the Universe, she, like the her dad, decided to embark on the Christian path of life.

The death of his sister and the criminal prosecution radically changed the life of Vladimir and his family. The 81-year-old mother started having health problems, which forced the believer to move to her place.

During the search, all equipment was confiscated from Vladimir, which prevents him from working fully and having the necessary means for living. Relatives and acquaintances of the believer are outraged and do not understand how it is possible to rush in with searches to peaceful people and persecute them only for their faith in God.

Case History

In November 2020, insurance agent Vladimir Dutkin was searched. Two days earlier, FSB investigator Mukhin opened a criminal case against him under an extremist article, and they took a written undertaking not to leave the place. In June 2021, Valery Yakovlev and Vladimir Chesnokov became new defendants in the case. They were accused of meeting with fellow believers in rented premises, discussing religion and drinking tea. In July 2021, the case went to court. Independent examinations refuted the accusations and found that the believers “called for honesty, restraint, and patience in relation to dissidents.” Six months later, the prosecutor requested from 6 to 6.5 years in prison for believers. In February 2022, the judge sentenced the believers to a fine: Vladimir Dutkin — 500 thousand rubles, the rest — 400 thousand rubles each. In April 2022, this sentence was upheld by the Court of Appeal. In August 2022, the Court of Cassation upheld the verdict and decision of the appellate instance.