Updated: April 25, 2024
Name: Ostapenko Roman Vasiliyevich
Date of Birth: December 27, 1986
Current status: accused
Articles of Criminal Code of Russian Federation: 282.2 (2)

Biography

On April 20, 2020, criminal proceedings were instituted against a 33-year-old father of two young children, Roman Ostapenko, for his faith. What is known about him?

Roman's great grandfather became a Jehovah's Witness back in 1938. In 1951, the whole family was repressed and exiled from Ukraine to Siberia. His mother was already born there.

Roman was born in 1986 in Abakan. He has an older sister and a younger brother. During his school years, Roman attended a drama club and an art school, and studied at a tiler-decorator. Later he studied in college as a construction technician, additionally graduated from the courses of designer, now he is mastering 3D modeling.

Following his religious beliefs, Roman once asked for the replacement of military service by an alternative civil service (ACS). From 2008 to 2010, he underwent ACS in an ophthalmology hospital.

Roman has been married since 2006. He and his wife, Ekaterina, have two sons.

The family has many hobbies. Catherine, among other things, is fond of drawing on glass. The whole family goes skiing, hiking, traveling.

Criminal prosecution has broken the peaceful way of life of the Ostapenko family. His health has deteriorated. The family considers Roman's persecution for his faith unfair.

Case History

From the high-profile case against the mother and son, Valentina and Roman Baranovskiy, a criminal case was separated against 6 other civilians from Abakan: 4 men and 2 women. Later, materials regarding Alexei Baikalov, Roman Ostapenko and the father of many children, Pyotr Bozykov, were separated into separate proceedings. The believers were accused of participating in extremist activities. All three are included in the Rosfinmonitoring list.