"The Years I Could Spend With My Family Cannot Be Returned" — Yevgeniy Korotun Released After 6 Years Behind Bars

On October 6, 2026, Yevgeniy Korotun, 56, one of Jehovah's Witnesses, was released from the penal colony in Nizhniy Tagil, located 2,000 kilometers from his home town Seversk. Taking into account his time in pretrial detention, he fully served the sentence imposed on him for practicing his faith.

"What I worry most about is that I will not see my son grow up," Yevgeniy had said, when he was first imprisoned. "The years I could spend with my family cannot be returned." At that time his son was only 9 years old.

Yevgeniy used every opportunity to support his wife, Yevgeniya, and to care for their child. During the 4 years the believer spent in the penal colony, his family visited 14 times. The Korotuns spoke on the phone almost every day. "Yevgeniy wrote separate letters to our son," the believer's wife recalled, "he would pick a topic, develop it, reason with Aleksandr through questions, make small drawings, and send quizzes with various interesting tasks."

Yevgeniy has a congenital heart defect; during his imprisonment, he often suffered severe headaches. In the penal colony, the believer was first assigned to clean the grounds and perform odd jobs. Later, he was transferred to work related to collecting, receiving, and shipping paper, plastic, and packaging cardboard.

During his years of imprisonment, Korotun received about 10,000 letters. "Thank you to the friends who enclosed stamps, postcards, and various drawings in the envelopes. That created a cycle of love: Yevgeniy could not only receive letters but also send them, which brought him a lot of joy," said Yevgeniya.

The criminal case against Korotun was initiated in July 2020. He was charged with organizing the activity of an extremist organization. Nearly 1.5 years later, the court sent the believer to the penal colony. On the same day, a guilty verdict was issued against Yevgeniy's brother-in-law, Andrey Kolesnichenko.

In total, seven of Jehovah's Witnesses in Seversk have faced criminal prosecution for their faith.