Updated: March 28, 2024
Name: Malyanov Sergey Ivanovich
Date of Birth: July 14, 1969
Current status: who has served the main sentence
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (1)
Time spent in prison: 1 day in a temporary detention facility
Sentence: punishment in the form of a fine in the amount of 700,000 rubles with deprivation of the right to engage in activities related to leadership and participation in the work of public and religious organizations for a period of 2 years and 11 months

Biography

On July 16 and 17, mass searches were carried out at the apartments of believers in several settlements of the Nizhny Novgorod region. A total of 35 searches were conducted, and at least 11 people are involved in the criminal case. One of the accused is Sergey Malyanov. What is known about this man?

Sergey was born in 1969 in Gorky (today Nizhny Novgorod). Since childhood, he was actively engaged in dancing and figure skating. After school he entered the Institute of Physical Culture, in 1991 he received a diploma in physical education. He has the title of Master of Sports of the USSR. He worked in the Moscow Circus on Ice as an acrobat, toured with performances in Russia and other countries. Recently, he has been engaged in interior decoration, but tries not to lose physical shape, plays football and hockey, goes to the skating rink.

Sergey has an adult daughter who works as a French teacher in a private school. Sergey himself takes care of his mother of retirement age, who is a disabled person of the second group.

The search for the meaning of life led Sergey to study the Bible, in which he found answers to his questions. He is convinced that the Bible is a book of valuable advice and reliable prophecies. The result of the spiritual quest was criminal prosecution for faith.

Religious persecution of Sergei severely undermined the health of his mother. "It's such a blow when a kind and caring son, without whom I can't live, is considered a criminal," she complains. "This pain is like a knife in the heart."

Case History

In July 2019, mass searches were carried out in the homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nizhny Novgorod. After that, several believers became defendants in criminal cases under an article for extremism. One of them was filed against Sergey Konshin, Sergey Malyanov and his daughter, Svetlana. The believers spent 24 hours in a temporary holding facility. Even before these events, the officers were listening in on Malyanov’s telephone conversations. Later, another defendant appeared in the case - Roman Zhivolupov. The believers were added to the Rosfinmonitoring list and they had to sign a recognizance agreement. In February 2022, the case went to court. The charges are based on a video recording of an event. The investigation considered the party a continuation of the activity of a liquidated religious organization. In April 2023, these Nizhny Novgorod residents were sentenced to fines ranging from 450,000 to 700,000 rubles. Later, the court of appeal upheld the guilty verdict, toughening the additional part of the punishment – not to hold any leading positions in religious and public organizations for 2 years and 11 months.