.svg) / [CC BY-SA 2.5](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)](/news/2020/02/26/image_huaa27ffc17277b902d2b269b179d92f7c_77157_750x375_resize_q75_bgffffff_lanczos_3.895d3b35ac580525d0fe6c0a6c985287bfb79b8058b5f5e3b06d77fd67f96df3.jpg)
Trans-Baikal Territory on the map of Russia. Source: Marmelad / CC BY-SA 2.5
Transbaikalia Becomes the 54th Region of Russia Where Jehovah’s Witnesses Are Repressed. Searches in the City of Chita and Six Other Settlements
Trans-Baikal TerritoryEarly in the morning of February 10, 2020, FSB officers began mass raids against believers in the cities of Chita, Baley, Khilok and Krasnokamensk, the villages of Kurort-Darasun, Pervomaiskoye, Amazar, Duldurga, Yasnogorsk and Verkhnyaya Hila. Vladimir Yermolaev, Oleg Podgrushin, Aleksandr Putintsev, Viktor Reshetov and others were detained.
To Alexander and Larisa Vasilyev, who live in Kurort-Darasun together with four children 4, 6, 8 and 16 years old, law enforcement officers invaded early in the morning. During the search, Aleksandr, a group III disabled person, felt unwell, but he was still taken away for interrogation. His wife, Larisa, who works as a neurologist, was left at home with her children, promising that she would be interrogated later. All electronic devices were seized from the family. The only reason for what happened was religion.
In the house of one of the families, law enforcement officers opened the floors during searches. The circumstances of the incident are being investigated.
The Trans-Baikal Territory is the territory where Jehovah's Witnesses were massively exiled to a special settlement during the Stalinist repressions. Later, the believers were rehabilitated and recognized as victims of political repression.
