Biography
A respectable family man and a peaceful worker from the city of Gryazi, Lipetsk region, Sergey Kretov has been living according to Christian principles for many years. In November 2020, his home was searched for 14 hours, the man was arrested and placed in a pre-trial detention center because of his faith.
Sergey was born in 1978 in Grozny (the Chechen Republic). He has 2 brothers and a sister. Their father was a military man, their mother worked as a teacher in a kindergarten, and later in oil and grain refineries.
Sergey graduated from a music school in the accordion class. He also attended a Morse code study club, and as a teenager he was engaged in kickboxing. Due to the unstable political and military situation in Chechnya, the family left their home and moved to the village of Nezlobnaya, Stavropol Territory. After the divorce of his parents and the departure of his elder brother, Sergey had to take care of the family. In the 1990s, as a teenager, he worked part-time to help his mother.
After school, Sergey graduated from the university with a degree in engineering and stayed there as a teacher. Later, he worked as a computer repair engineer and instrumentation engineer. In his spare time, he studies psychology and neural networks.
From a young age, Sergey wanted to learn more about God. He prayed to understand what the Bible says. After studying the Scriptures, he was struck by the clarity and simplicity of the Bible's teachings, as well as the fact that God has a personal name. Sergey decided to take the Christian path in 1997.
In 2004, Sergey married Marina, who shared his life values. In her spare time, she enjoys tending the garden, cooking and reading. After the wedding, the Kretovs lived in Georgiyevsk (Stavropol Territory), and in 2007 the family moved to the city of Gryazi (Lipetsk region). The couple raised a daughter, Liza. The whole family loves to watch interesting movies in the evenings, play board games, solve puzzles on biblical themes.
The arrest, the criminal case and the trial were a blow to the whole family. Sergey said: "For 17 years of family life, the time spent in the pre-trial detention center, in which I was 8 months, was the longest parting with Marina. Under these conditions, we learned to take care of each other in a new way."
Due to criminal prosecution, Sergey lost his job, but later, having been released from the pre-trial detention center on his own recognizance, he was able to find work in his specialty again in a private company.