Case of Odintsov in Snezhnogorsk Anatoliy Odintsov

 RUSSIA

Case of Odintsov in Snezhnogorsk

Anatoliy Odintsov

Updated: July 12, 2023

Name: Odintsov, Anatoliy Alekseyevich

Date of Birth: February 7, 1958

Current status: accused

Article of the Russian Criminal Code: 282.2(1)

Biography

Anatoliy Odintsov has become another Jehovah's Witness from the Murmansk region, who is persecuted by the authorities for his faith in God. In the spring of 2023, a case was opened against him under an extremist article.

Anatoliy was born in February 1958 in Severomorsk, Murmansk region. He has a younger sister. Their parents worked at the railway station. His father was a train maker, and his mother was a freight forwarder. The parents are no longer alive.

As a child, Anatoliy loved skiing on the hills, photographing winter northern landscapes, skating, collecting stamps on the topics: flora, fauna, outstanding people. Now Anatoliy is interested in cars, likes to take pictures and travel.

At the end of the 8th grade, Anatoliy entered the Leningrad Electrotechnical Medical College, graduated with a degree in repair and installation of electromedical and X-ray equipment. In 1980, he got a job at a repair and installation company in Murmansk. In the same year he entered the correspondence department of the Polytechnic Institute in Leningrad at the Faculty of Electronic Computers. In 1983, Anatoliy moved to the city of Snezhnogorsk and worked there as a foreman of the maintenance point at the medical unit.

Since 1993, Anatoliy worked at a heat and power plant (boiler house) servicing power electrical networks. After 14 years, he returned to Murmansk for a repair shop. Prior to the persecution, he worked as a medical equipment engineer at the Clinical Pathology Bureau.

In the 1990s, Anatoliy became interested in the Holy Scriptures and began to deeply study this book. He was impressed by the simplicity and clarity of biblical principles, as well as the immutability of moral standards. The study of the Bible convinced him that everything around nature was created, and did not appear in the course of evolution. In 1994 Anatoly decided to become a Jehovah's Witness.

In the same year he married Svetlana. She works at a gas station in a trucking company, loves jazz music, plays the guitar. Svetlana shares the religious beliefs of her husband and supports him in everything.

Due to religious repression, the Odintsovs had to leave their usual way of life, they faced economic difficulties. Relatives and friends are outraged by the persecution, which, in their opinion, "has no basis."

Brief history of the case

In April 2023, a criminal case was initiated against Anatoly Odintsov, a pensioner from Snezhnogorsk. The Investigative Committee charges him with organizing the activities of an extremist organization.

Timeline

Criminal case

Region:

Murmansk Region

Locality:

Snezhnogorsk

Case number:

12302470006000021

Initiated:

April 24, 2023

Current stage of the case:

preliminary investigation

Investigating:

SU IC of Russia for the Murmansk region

Articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation:

282.2(1)