Nikolai Romaniuk

Senior Presbyter of the Holy Trinity Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith in the Moscow region. On 18 October 2024, they came to search him, as well as two other families of believers and two houses of prayer in the Moscow region - in Balashikha and Volokolamsk, told church minister Roman Zhukov. In some cases, special forces fighters broke down doors. As a result of the searches, computers, laptops, flash drives, discs, and some documents were seized. One of the believers had all his credit cards, his mother's pension card, and international passports taken away. The law enforcers also came to the house of Ilia and Sergey Romaniuks (Zhukov does not specify their connections to the pastor). Although there wasn't a search in their house, both men were placed face down on the floor at gunpoint and kept in that position for 12 hours, Zhukov claims. For an hour and a half out of this time, the men lay on the ground outside in light clothing and barefoot. Pastor Nikolai Romaniuk was detained the same evening. According to Zhukov, he was offered to record a video message, presumably with a confession of guilt, but he refused. On 20 October, the court sent him to custody on the case of calling for activities against the security of the Russian Federation because of the anti-war sermon he delivered on 25 September 2022. The session on the election of a preventive measure was held in closed mode.
On 3 September 2025, Romaniuk was sentenced to four years in a general regime colony.

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