Missionaries return after Russia jailing

SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Wednesday that two of its missionaries have returned to the U.S. after they were detained in Russia for more than two weeks over accusations involving visa violations.

Kole Brodowski, 20, and David Gaag, 19, were detained on March 1 in Novorossiisk, a Black Sea port city.

A Russian court ordered their deportation after they were accused of working as English teachers without proper credentials.

The two men were fined the equivalent of $470 each on charges of illegal missionary activities, according to details of court proceedings covered by Russian news agencies.

The men were treated well and permitted to stay in contact with their relatives and church officials during the detention, church spokesman Eric Hawkins said in a statement. The Utah-based faith had previously said it was “troubled by the circumstances” of the young men’s detention but declined to elaborate or discuss the case in more detail.

Brodowski was near the end of his service and will return home to Garden Grove, Calif., Hawkins said.

Gaag of Bothell, Wash., plans to stay in the U.S. for a short period and then serve the rest of his mission in a different country, he said.

Russian government officials have declined to comment about specifics of the case.

Latter-day Saints missionaries have not been allowed to legally proselytize in Russia since 2016 and are called “volunteers” while they perform missionary duty in the country. The change was triggered by an anti-terrorism law signed that year by Russian President Vladimir Putin that put restrictions on religious missionary practices and dictates that religious work can only be done in houses of worship and other related religious sites.

The church that year decreased its number of members serving as volunteers in Russia down to about 50, but Hawkins declined to specify how many are there now.