Crimea: A Believer, a Victim of Political Repression, Was Injured in a Force Operation

78-year-old Alexander Petrovich Ursu, who was repressed for his faith and later recognized as an innocent victim, was pressed against the wall and fell to his knees, handcuffed. This happened on the evening of November 15, 2018 in the city of Dzhankoy (Crimea), where the FSB, with the support of riot police, carried out gross incursions into the homes of citizens who are suspected of professing the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. A criminal case under Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation was initiated against a 46-year-old local resident Sergey Filatov. The arrests are not yet known, the handcuffs of Alexandr Ursu have been removed.

The Russian authorities in 2018 are repeating the tragic mistake made during the Stalinist period. Since the early 1930s, Alexandr Ursu's family has considered itself to be one of Jehovah's Witnesses. In the 1940s, his father, uncle and grandfather were sent to labor camps because of their religion. In 1947, with a serious injury, but alive, only his father returned. "When I was nine years old, our family and hundreds of other Witnesses from Moldavia were exiled to Siberia," Alexander Ursu said in his autobiography, "On July 6, 1949, we were loaded into cattle cars, and we traveled non-stop for 12 days. Having covered more than six thousand kilometers, we arrived at the Lebyazhye station. The local authorities were already waiting for us there. We were divided into small groups and immediately settled in different places. For our group, a small empty school became home. We were exhausted and depressed." Later, Alexandru Ursu was repeatedly subjected to various forms of pressure from the state security agencies, including searches in his house. On May 21, 1991, Alexandr Ursu was rehabilitated in accordance with the Decree "On additional measures to restore justice for the victims of repressions that took place in the period of the 30-40s and early 50s". Certificate of rehabilitation No. 23 was issued to him on 17 June 1991.

Punitive authorities in modern Russia consider any worship of Jehovah as participation in the activities of an "extremist organization" (with reference to the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to liquidate all 396 registered organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses), while the Russian government officially declares that the decision of the Supreme Court "does not contain a restriction or prohibition to practice the above teachings individually." "There is a contradiction between the declared position of the Government of the Russian Federation and law enforcement practice. This cannot but cause concern, since criminal prosecutions and arrests have become systemic," the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights said in a statement .