Vladimir Putin will throw critics in gulag where prisoners' hands are crushed

19 September 2023 , 20:10

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Vladimir Putin (Image: SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images)

Desperate Vladimir Putin has re-purposed Russia’s most notorious gulag to house those who oppose him.

He is so worried his war on Ukraine has turned people against him he needs a jailhouse of horrors where he can lock up activists and even the opposition. Called IK-17, the prison will house inmates dubbed “terrorists”, who are actually anyone caught campaigning against President Putin.

The prison is located outside the major city of Krasnoyarsk in Central Siberia, 2,500 miles from Moscow, where winter temperatures can fall below -50C. Beatings and torture are constantly reported. It has torture chambers and areas called “press rooms” where inmates are pressured to confess and provide details of friends and associates who will then be arrested.

Prisoners are arbitrarily tortured. Videos exist of prison officers striking prisoners and dragging them into corridors for thrashings. Some are tortured in the presence of the governor, Colonel Yuri Cheremnykh; referred to by former inmates as “a sadist.” Inmates who are favoured by the staff are encouraged to beat up fellow convicts.

Aerial shot of the grim prison in Siberia

Uncooperative prisoners have their hands crushed, on orders, by fellow inmates, while other prisoners have their heads forced down dirty lavatory bowls. The prison is also next to the gigantic, environmentally hazardous Rusal aluminium smelter and all nearby residential homes have been relocated.

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Some prisoners, as well as working there, are accommodated in dormitories in the smelter site. The dust, smog and soot, and closeness to the plant are described as “cruel treatment, endangering life and health”. A former inmate said: “If you leave the window open, the sill can turn black overnight.”

Conditions are judged by human rights’ organisations as much harsher than elsewhere. Prisoners get out of bed at 5.30am each day, followed by two hours of outdoor exercise in all weathers.

Chris Hughes