A pastor from Anapa, convicted under the article on “undesirable organization,” has his sentence tightened

The Krasnodar Regional Court toughened the sentence for Pastor Nikolai Bogoslavsky - the latter had previously been sentenced to a year in a penal colony because of his collaboration with the Christian movement “New Generation,” which the Russian authorities consider an “undesirable organization” (Part 1 of Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by the press service of the regional courts.

The appellate court upheld the lower court's decision to deprive Bogoslavsky of his freedom, and also banned the man from engaging in public activities (including on the Internet) for a period of seven years.

In February 2022, Bogoslavsky was fined five thousand rubles under the administrative article on “undesirable organizations” (Article 20.33 of the Administrative Code) due to his participation in the conference of the Christian movement “New Generation” in Ramenskoye (Moscow region).

The conference was held in December 2021, then the security forces came there and forced about 60 participants to sign documents on prosecution under the article on cooperation with an “undesirable organization.” “They put everyone on the cold floor face down for 40 minutes, the security forces beat one person,” believers said about the security forces’ visit.

The security forces (and later the court) considered that Bogoslavsky continued to cooperate with the Latvian organization “New Generation” and “other undesirable international organizations” after the fine under the administrative article. Because of this, a criminal case was opened against him and he was convicted.

In August 2022, Bogoslavsky and other believers were searched. Pastor Nikolai Ulitin has since been in a Moscow pre-trial detention center; his children were fined in June under an administrative article about cooperation with an “undesirable organization.”

As part of a similar case, Ukrainian priest Andrei Tishchenko was put on the wanted list. Also in April of this year, the ex-head of the Chelyabinsk branch of the New Generation, Sergei Yugov, was arrested in Moscow.

• In February 2022, the Anapa City Court granted the prosecutor’s claim to block the VKontakte page of the Church of Christ the Savior.
• In August of the same year, searcheswere carried out on alleged members of the New Generation in six Russian cities.
• In August 2021, the General Prosecutor's Office recognized as “undesirable” four religious organizations that are associated with Latvia and Ukraine: International Christian Movement “New Generation” (Republic of Latvia); Evaņgēlisko kristiešu baznīca “Jaunā Paaudze” (Evangelical Christian Church “New Generation”) (Republic of Latvia); Spiritual Administration of Evangelical Christians of the Ukrainian Christian Church “New Generation” (Spiritual Administration of Evangelical Christians of the Ukrainian Christian Church “New Generation”) (Ukraine); Spiritual Basics of the International Bible College “New Generation” (Spiritual Educational Institution International Bible College “New Generation”) (Ukraine). The report states that the reason for making such a decision was that “their activities pose a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order and security of the Russian Federation.”