Many others fled, including Dmitrii Antsybor and Nellia Antsybor who flew to Mexico last January to seek asylum. They now hope to start a new life in Washington.
The couple entered the U.S. separated and were sent to separate immigration detention centers, Nellia in Arizona and Dmitrii in California. They reunited in February after nearly three months.
Nellia is happy to be free in Federal Way, a suburb in Seattle, despite the ordeal she went through and the fact that her twin sister and mother were still in Russia.
Through a translator, she stated that “it is nice not to be afraid to gather together with our brothers and sister even if it’s via Zoom.” “I feel more at ease now.”
Russia’s invasion in Ukraine is a new cause of concern.
Dmitrii stated, “I am very concerned about what’s going with my brothers-and-sisters in that country.” We pray for them.
Jarrod Lopes, a U.S.-based spokesperson of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, stated that approximately 5,000 Witnesses have fled Ukraine in search for protection in other countries.
Witnesses in Russia: Lopes estimates that there are approximately 170,000. There has been concern since 2017 when the Russian Supreme Court declared the Christian denomination an extreme group.
Hundreds were arrested and taken into custody. The national headquarters was seized and their homes and places for worship, known as Kingdom Halls were raided. Along with the globally circulated magazines Awake, Watchtower, and their modern Russian-language translations of the Bible, the Witnesses have been expelled.
Nellia stated that she and Dmitrii were long on the radar of the authorities in the towns where they lived. She said that they fled after their mother called them in October to report that police had issued a warrant for their arrest.
“To be a Jehovah’s Witness Russia means to constantly be in legal jeopardy. Constantly in fear of either an invasion or confiscation of property or being locked up,” Jason Morton, a policy analyst for the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (a bipartisan federal agency that monitors religious freedom violations around the world), said.
According to the commission, last year there were 105 guilty verdicts against Witnesses from Russia. Their maximum sentences have increased from six years to eight years.
The Russian government has not provided any detailed justifications for the crackdown.
Emily Baran, Middle Tennessee State University history professor, said that she doesn’t believe there is any rational person who can prove that Witnesses are fundamentally extreme. She has also studied Soviet and post-Soviet Witnesses.
This label was even described by Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, as “complete nonsense” in 2018, when he was asked about it.
He said, “Jehovah’s Witnesses are Christians too, so I don’t understand why they (they) persecute [them].”
While Witnesses may be Christians, their beliefs and practices are different. They refuse blood transfusions, abstain from voting, conscientious object to military service, and avoidance participation in national ceremonies or holidays. Prior to the pandemic, Witnesses were active in door-to-door proelution, which was a crucial part of their faith.
Other than Russia, witnesses are subject to persecution in many former Soviet republics including Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Shamil Khakimov (70-year-old Tajik citizen) was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2019.
Many Witnesses are in prison in Eritrea, which has mandatory military conscription. South Korea is a country where young men are required to perform military service. Witnesses were routinely held in prison for refusing to comply with the 2018 court order.
Morton stated that the Witnesses “seems to really ruffle your feathers of your more autoritarian-minded governments, who require a baseline level of participation in the state.” They are on the radar because they don’t want to participate in the traditional functions of celebrating the state and participating in certain rituals.
Witnesses in Russia have not been subject to the same crackdown as before. They were often deported to Siberia during the Soviet era. Many times, they were subject to discrimination in the workplace and lost custody of their children.
Baran stated that “they didn’t do any of the performative aspects of Soviet life.”
Baran stated that Witnesses were under suspicion because of their American roots during the Cold War. “Because they belonged to an international religious group the Soviet Union believed this was evidence of a bigger capitalist conspiracy.”
After weeks of hiding with officers and disguising themselves to fool security cameras, Nellia and Dmitrii decided they wanted to flee Russia.
Dmitrii stated, “We knew they would eventually find them.”
They flew one-way from Moscow to Cancun, Mexico. After a brief stop, they flew to Mexicali, Mexico, in December. They then approached U.S. border officials to ask for asylum.
The couple celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary while in U.S. custody. Nellia continued her love poem tradition to mark the occasion.
She wrote, “I beg God this time passes quickly. Better times are ahead.” “My beloved, wait patiently for me. Wait for me. Don’t get too sad about me.”
Dmitrii stated that he studied Russian tax law and now wants to become a truck driver, if he is able to avoid long hauls that would be too far from his wife. Nellia isn’t certain what kind of job she would pursue.
The Antsybors belong to the many Witnesses, likely several thousand according to Lopes, who fled Russia after the crackdown in 2017. Many others have sought refuge in Europe.
Evgeniy Kandaurov, his wife and fled Russia in August 2021. They have since settled in Germany. According to him, their home was raided in February 2021 by police officers with an internal intelligence officer giving remote orders.
The officers took possession of all bags belonging to the couple, except for one wedding photo.
Kandaurov’s father was a Communist and he became interested in the Jehovah’s Witnesses after serving two years in the army. Kandaurov was baptized in 1994. He is expected to dedicate at least 130 hours per month to ministry work.
He traveled throughout Russia to promote the rights of Witnesses, evangelizing and worshipping peacefully. He often helped those who were confronted with police.
He said, “This was in fact the favorite form of service: protecting our rights in court,” in an interview from Wiesbaden (a town west Frankfurt).
Kandaurov claimed that he was interrogated multiple times over several hours.
He said, “We couldn’t sleep: every knock on the door, every heavy step out in the corridor, it deprived our sleep, and it was nerve-racking.”
He and his wife fled Russia last summer. They drove through Ukraine and Moldova before flying to Germany. Their only surviving wedding photo was among their few possessions.
He spends his time now writing to his loved ones and worshipping on Zoom with his new friends.
He said, “I don’t have to whisper,”
