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SALT LAKE CITY — A former Latter-day Saint volunteer who served in the same area in Russia where two church volunteers were arrested Friday said detentions were fairly routine, but he never felt unsafe.
Cody Watterson, who is currently a BYU-Idaho student, served in Novorossiysk up until the day before the Russian government implemented a counterterrorism law in July 2016 that banned public missionary work, he told KSL on Wednesday.
Watterson said volunteers in the area were often detained for short periods of time.
“The big one we got detained for when I was there is police officers would take us to the police station to verify our documents,” he said.
Details about the two detained male volunteers, whose names have not been released, remain scarce. It is not clear why the two were arrested.
The two are in good condition, Eric Hawkins, spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Tuesday.
CBS News reported Wednesday that a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had “no information” about the pair.
Russian police detain two Latter-day Saint volunteers in Novorossiysk
Local Russian police arrested two young Latter-day Saint volunteers during a meeting at a church meetinghouse on Friday.The father of one of the volunteers told the Deseret News on Tuesday that Russian officials believed the volunteers were illegally teaching English, but the volunteers said they were having a regularly scheduled game night in English.
The two likely will remain in detention for the rest of the week, the father said.
Watterson said he never felt unsafe in Novorossiysk. Even so, when he was serving, there were rules volunteers had to follow with regard to proselytizing, he said. Before the 2016 law, it still wasn’t safe to openly proselytize due to the war in Ukraine that was taking place, he said.
“One of the big things that actually made the church successful in Russia is the fact that we do follow all the laws,” Watterson said.
Contributing: Mary Richards, KSL Newsradio
