Jarrod Lopes, spokesman for Jehovah's Witnesses at their world headquarters: "We are happy for Roman, Viktor, and their families that the court did not sentence them to prison. However, it remains and injustice for these peaceful men to be convicted and stigmatized as "extremists," a burdensome consequence for nothing more than peacefully practicing their Christian beliefs."

The men were arrested on April 18, 2018, when armed and masked special forces raided their homes in the Russian city of Polyarny. The police arrived late in the evening to the Markin family's home and broke down the door. Threatening Roman with automatic weapons, the officers forced him to lie on the floor while they searched his home. Roman's 16-year-old daughter, who was present during the raid, also dropped to the floor and covered her head with her arms.

An additional four homes of Witnesses were raided that night in Polyarny. The officers took more than a dozen people, including Roman and Viktor, to the investigation office for interrogation. Subsequently, the Polyarny District Court of Murmansk ruled to keep them both in pretrial detention. The men spent nearly six months in detention, followed by four months of house arrest. On February 7, 2019, the court released them from house arrest. Although no longer confined to their homes, their travel and communications have been limited while awaiting their verdict.