The judge of the Balashikha City Court, Evgeny Parshin, found the 63-year-old minister of the Pentecostal church, Nikolai Romanyuk, guilty under the article on calls for activities aimed against state security on the network, reported the correspondent of «SOTAvision»* from the courtroom. The priest was sentenced to 4 years in a general regime colony and a three-year ban on website administration, the prosecutor requested 4.5 years in a colony for the defendant.
According to the investigation, Romanyuk «called for activities aimed against state security» in an anti-war sermon published on his church's channel in September 2022. In his instruction, the pastor compared participation in the war with sinful temptations and urged parishioners not to participate in combat actions.
Nikolai Romanyuk is the senior pastor of the evangelical «Church of the Holy Trinity» in Balashikha, father of nine children. On October 18, 2024, a search was conducted at the Romanyuk family home. The priest was detained with demonstrative cruelty, and his children were held face down on the ground in the yard of the house for about 12 hours. On October 20, Romanyuk was sent to a pre-trial detention center.
* Recognized in Russia as a «foreign agent».
Photo: SOTAvision