Gulagu.net has at its disposal a large video archive of the Federal Penitentiary Service, containing videos of rape and torture of prisoners. According to the founder of the project, Vladimir Osechkin, “this proves that in the institutions of the FSIN there are Sonderkommandos of secret agents of the FSB and the FSIN, who, on the instructions of their curators, torture and rape prisoners, and the process itself is filmed on office video recorders, which they are given to film these tortures.” With the help of this incriminating evidence, people are forced to sign statements and cooperate with operatives.
Judging by the video recordings that “That's So” has at its disposal, prisoners are tied to beds with their legs and buttocks raised up. In some cases, a gag is inserted into the mouth, in others they simply cover the mouth and play music somewhere in the background. After this, the tied ones are raped. Sometimes a certain man tries to do this, whose face is not included in the frame. In other cases, a mop wrapped in tape or something similar is screwed into the anus in a spiral. Then the raped person is asked if he understood everything.
We are publishing the recording of the torture because we consider it to be socially significant evidence, but we warn you that the video may shock you.
According to Vladimir Osechkin , FSIN operatives made such video recordings for reporting to higher authorities, up to the generals.
“Gulagu.net has obtained new evidence that proves the systemic nature of torture and the involvement of employees of the State Institution of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia and the operational departments of the Main Directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Irkutsk Region, the Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Saratov Region and the Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Vladimir Region in these massive violent crimes.
We have at our disposal a number of files from the official video archive of the Federal Penitentiary Service, filmed on official video recorders in the period 2018–2020, which indicate that the FSIN operatives, obliged to identify and suppress crimes, actually instructed their agents from among the recruited convicts to torture, torment and to rape those under investigation and arrest, defendants and convicts, as well as to film these tortures and sodomy on the official video recorders of the Federal Penitentiary Service in order to collect incriminating evidence and subsequent blackmail of the victim of torture and, under the threat of discredit and transfer to the caste of the humiliated (the so-called downtrodden), hundreds of people were forced to “cooperation,” signing contracts to work as an in-camera agent (informer), to “cooperating with the investigation,” and signing testimony prepared by investigators that is convenient for investigators and clients,” says Osechkin.
Story
“A carefully organized torture conveyor” Stories of people who served their sentences in OTB-1 of Saratov
18.09.2021 15:24
“We managed to remove from Russia and the CIS a man who had been serving a sentence for five years in one of the FSIN institutions. He is a programmer, he himself was beaten and tortured, and then they decided to use him as a professional,” Osechkin told the “That’s So” correspondent. – For five years, he had access to FSIN computers and video recorders at the OTB-1 security headquarters in Saratov.
The torture room in the local tuberculosis hospital operates under an agreement with the FSB; prisoners from all over the country can be transferred there formally for medical reasons. There are four categories of arrestees and prisoners who were beaten and raped there: if he is interested in testifying against a prominent opposition leader, billionaire, or major official; to subjugate any observer or position - so that he fulfills any whim of the operative. Even with extortion, how rich is this man? And by order from the outside: if enemies at large paid operatives 3-5 million rubles for organizing a rape on camera.”
Analysis
Parole game
There is one interesting feature of this completely peculiar reality: the game of liberation. Nobody seems to want to be released, but applications for parole are constantly being submitted. 90% of such requests are rejected, but prisoners write applications again and wait again. At the same time, they seriously say that on such and such a date they will be released, they prepare, discuss, then they are refused, they get upset, but do not regret it, and they are going to be released again, knowing that no one will let them go anywhere. This is the game.
Most requests for parole are rejected, but women apply for it again and again, believing in their release early. Photo: From personal archive / Tatyana Ostrovskaya
Correctional system employees treat this leniently and also know for sure that the convicts will not go anywhere, and if they do, they will return.
The working day in the colony is strictly rationed, but some people tend to fall asleep even at work. Photo: From personal archive / Tatyana Ostrovskaya
But this story also has a happy ending. One of the prisoners was captured by a TV channel film crew that visited the colony. Then the editors of the program on Channel One noticed her and invited her to go on air. There, one of the producers liked the woman, and she was offered to play the role of a prisoner, but in a TV series. She never returns to the colony; she works honestly and supports three children; she moved to another region.
Almost everyone in the colony chews gum. Photo: From personal archive / Tatyana Ostrovskaya
For those who stay here for a long time, there is also an outlet - a temple in honor of the Great Martyr Anastasia the Pattern Maker. The priest comes here on Sundays and confesses to the condemned. When asked why there is confession but no result, he answered simply: “Everyone has their own barrier. Some people can steal or kill, but others can’t. And there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Torture is contagious How violence in prisons affects each of us
21.10.2021 06:00
According to him, the system works like this: inside the institution there is a Sonderkommando of about 10 people who, at the command of operatives, can beat, rape, and torture prisoners. As Osechkin says, more than 200 people went through these tortures, but the abuse of only 35-40 of them was recorded on video. “From the M department of the FSB or the FSIN they called OTB-1, gave a task, the head of the security department gave a command to the person responsible for the video recorders. He charged them and handed them over to the employees with an empty memory card, and they handed them over to the activists. The prisoner was brought in and four or five convicts attacked him, beat him, tied him up in a helpless state, lifting his legs and exposing his anus, then raped him with a stick or for real, urinated on his face. This process of transferring this person to the lowered caste, so that he becomes a nobody, was recorded on video,” says the founder of Gulagu.net. Among the activists he names Sergei Ananyev, Radik Gimadeev, Vitaly Yanin, Peter and Alexander Krainov, Viktor Sheyanov.
After the rape, the video recorder was brought back to headquarters, the information was copied from it and put on a flash drive to be taken to the customer. According to Osechkin, there were cases of technical failure, the video was not received or was not saved - in such situations the torture was repeated, says a Gulagu.net source. Vladimir Osechkin points out that until some point the informant participated in preparing replies to his requests, but then “decided to stop this hell” and began copying information, hiding files in a computer system or recording on a separate medium. Upon his release, he downloaded the rest of the archive, since he still had access to the internal system of the Federal Penitentiary Service.
“And this is not only OTB-1 in Saratov, there is evidence from Irkutsk - pre-trial detention center-1, pre-trial detention center-6. There is evidence that this practice is systemic,” says Osechkin. Torture and rape continued at least until June 2021, he clarifies, that is, until a criminal case was initiated in which there were victims, but no suspects.
The project informant is currently in relative safety, but he is being hunted and is awaiting political asylum. According to Osechkin, he has not yet seen the most terrible materials and does not yet know what can be captured on these videos.
Story
The court secretary served time in a colony and described the eerie life
Prison for generals
Marina was recently released. But when you meet her on the street, you will never even think that she was THERE. A pretty young woman with a higher education and experience in the judicial system and government agencies. Could she have thought that she would someday find herself in the prisoner's place? However, she herself will tell about all this in our conversation, which I began with the question - how the servant of Themis was punished by her own sword of justice.
“To be precise, by the time of my arrest I had already left the judicial system and was working at the Pension Fund,” Marina begins. — I was charged under the “people's” article. They found about three grams of hashish from my friend, with whom I was at that moment. I was charged with possession, part 2 art. 228 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. They immediately took me into custody, although I am a Muscovite and have two children.
But it must be said that, in principle, almost all former or current employees of the law enforcement and judicial system are subject to the most severe preventive measure. I ended up in pre-trial detention center No. 6 and was amazed at how many female “beesnitsy” (former employees) there were there.
It was mentally difficult. A senior investigator for particularly important cases sat with me in the cell (she was charged with creating an organized criminal group, whose members stole apartments). So, she mocked us: “Don’t sit there, don’t go here.” She called herself an elite; everyone, in her understanding, had to serve her.
A female general of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was sitting in the pre-trial detention center at the same time as me, but in a different cell. She was later acquitted and reinstated at work. By the way, after her release she supported some women behind bars and sent them money. But one prisoner began to take advantage of this, calling her, begging and even threatening her. So the general’s wife was forced to change her number.
- What prison did you end up in?
“I was sent to serve my sentence in a women’s colony in Kostroma, where the convicts are only “beesnitsa.” There are just over a hundred people being held there. What kind of women are these? Mostly former employees of the PPS, tax police, bailiffs (one girl came to Moscow from the region, got a job at the FSSP, and she was given a bribe - 200 thousand, a lot of money for her - and was immediately arrested). There were many former investigators of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Investigative Committee. One, I remember, made a scene for us. At first she was kept separately from us, in the medical unit, because she was simply not herself. And then they seemed to treat her, they tried to move her in with us, but she started running around the territory, screaming at everyone... Then she wrote a statement against the supervising prosecutor, as if he wanted to rape her. Everyone was simply amazed. And she was again placed in the medical unit.
Some people lose their minds during the investigation process. The former deputy prosecutor of one of the Moscow districts was sitting with me. She was convicted of brokering a bribe. So she developed a mania - as if they were persecuting her, they wanted to take away her apartment. She carried her bags with her everywhere, and attacked everyone: “You want to put me in jail for a new case so that you can take my apartment!” I felt sorry for her. By the way, she served from bell to bell.
- There is an opinion that women commit most crimes because of men...
- Many people take bribes - what do men have to do with it? Let's say that in one police department there was a whole scheme for extorting bribes. They detained one, she ratted everyone out, and we entered the colony together - the entire female part of the department.
Because of men, of course, crimes also happened. One worked as an employee of a pre-trial detention center, killed her husband (also an employee) while drunk... Some stories are very impressive. For example, one investigator, while pregnant, stabbed to death her husband who was throwing himself at her. This is just in time to talk about domestic violence. The court sentenced her to eight years. She gave birth behind bars. The child was with her until he was three years old, and then she gave him to her parents.
— Were there any innocent people in the colony, and if so, what was the percentage?
- You know, probably, after all, no one is completely innocent. There is still some share of guilt. And I have it.
But many, of course, said that they were innocent. I argued with some: “You took this money!” Some simply experienced professional deformation - they considered it normal to take “thanks” and “gifts”, and did not recognize this as a bribe. But in general, “Beesniks” are a special audience. Many, excuse me, are rotten inside. And it quickly shows up in the little things.
— Were only former employees with you in the colony or was there another contingent there?
“We also got caught by non-Beess soldiers.” They were sent to our colony as a safe place. There was a girl sitting there who was arrested at the age of 17 and given a long sentence for manufacturing synthetic drugs. She is the daughter of very high-ranking law enforcement officials. Because of her mom and dad, there was a threat to her life in a regular colony, so she was transferred to us.
And there were plenty of pedophiles. In ordinary women's colonies, no one convicted under such articles could guarantee safety. It was assumed that the former employees were more reasonable and would not kill anyone.
— You’re right: we’re talking about crimes against children’s sexual integrity?
- Exactly about them. This is the worst category. It is impossible to listen to their stories. A woman sat with us because she was “having fun” with her lover and her nine-year-old child (he was given 19 years old, she was 16 years old). Another set up a studio for filming with children. There were seven of them. If possible, I won’t even remember them. I have children, this is crazy for me... I am glad that they all received huge sentences. And not one of them was released on parole.
—And how were they treated in the colony?
“They lived and worked together with everyone else. Some particularly aggressive bees tried to press them (they poured salt into the coffee, poured ketchup into the shoes, pushed...). But the administration always stopped this. I don’t think the employees treated the pedophiles well, but they were forced to protect them.
“Life doesn’t flow at all”
— What are your memories of three years in the colony?
- Internal cold. The psychologist never spoke to me. And at least someone from the management would have called for the whole time, talked, asked: “What are your future plans?” Apparently, they thought that attention to me was not required. Someone once remarked: “You are already stress-resistant.” It's probably true. There were women in the colony who could not stand up for themselves. I could.
— Did fights really happen in the colony?
- As many as you like. Squads of 20–30 people, closed space. Some will fight over something, then others will. There is a lot of gossip - it’s a female team. They pull each other by the hair, strangle them...
— Do women take care of themselves?
- Who knows? Some people put on makeup and do their hair every morning. Others “forget” themselves.
There is another topic that is not usually discussed. Sex among women. I was sure that there was definitely no such thing in the colony for former employees, but I was wrong. It is impossible to look at all this.
A 40-year-old former employee of the criminal-executive inspection arrived from Ryazan. She doesn’t put on makeup, her face is drunk, her gait is masculine. I immediately started looking for a partner. And the girls are acting out - some out of boredom, some for cigarettes. And so they walk hand in hand, kiss, and so on... Sometimes in front of everyone. Very disgusting. By the way, she almost strangled one of them out of jealousy.
— How do employees react to these “love stories”?
- Badly. But when they see that they have been together for a long time, they don’t pay attention. We had a “besnitsa” with a huge sentence. One of her partners will be freed - she finds another, and she will free herself - a third...
Former police officer Alena (she received a prison term for a bribe) approached all the women. He has a girl and a child at large. She says the child calls her “dad.” Here are the police officers for you.
— Many convict women were abandoned by their husbands while they were in prison?
- Not many. There were cases, we knew about them. It seems to me that it’s even harder when they’re waiting for you at home, when you have a family. This is painful. They were waiting for me, but I have very good parents, children, and friends. Long dates are scheduled once every two months - for three days, which fly by in a flash. It was very difficult to say goodbye: they are leaving, you are staying.
The administration of the colony, we must give it its due, allowed us to go home on leave for good behavior. All women who were lucky returned on time, without violations. There was no escape attempt. Why run if you are allowed to go on vacation? However, I was unlucky; I was never given a vacation.
— Is there work in the colony? And how much can you earn?
— There is, mainly sewing production. Some worked in the “laundress” and in the kitchen. I immediately threw myself into work so that the days would fly faster and not see what was happening around me. As for salaries... I personally received about a thousand rubles a month. The colony took the rest to pay for utilities and food (by the way, if you don’t want to eat in the canteen, you still have to come and sit at the table).
- How else did you spend your time?
- No way. Work and sleep. We had amateur artistic activities. But the women did not participate there from the heart, but purely for show for the administration. Former colonels and lieutenant colonels sang there. If you want to go on parole, you can sing and dance.
I didn’t sing, so I sat from bell to bell.
— Did the court refuse?
— In the colony they didn’t allow me to write an application for parole. As soon as I said that I wanted to try, they immediately charged me with violations. One thing is that the name tag is sewn crookedly onto the uniform. Secondly, they found one more T-shirt in their personal belongings than allowed. Third, she stood by a neighboring detachment unaccompanied. If you apply for parole without the approval of the colony, you will immediately receive penalties. And there is no chance.
Then they gave rewards for good work, which neutralized all violations. And I again mentioned that I wanted to write a petition for parole. The squad leader immediately comes: “Marina, I don’t know how to say it, they’re rejecting you with a new promotion.”
— How are they preparing for release?
- No way. I did my time and left. And for some, enormous administrative supervision may be imposed for 10 years. One of them did this, and now she can’t get a job anywhere. How to live? She is an orphan...
In the colony, many are reconsidering their lives. But what next? This is my family, friends, but for those who don’t have all this, what should they do? Recently, one of us was released from our colony - she had already drunk herself to death in freedom. Another was recently killed while drunk (she once received a prison sentence for the murder of her roommate). This is all because there is no work, that no one needs you.
-Have you found a job?
— I was released in July and registered with the employment center. They found me a job. I got to production and placed orders. They paid me for a month, and then they threw me away. And I'm sitting without work again. Although I have a higher education and experience working in serious government agencies. Everywhere they ask about your criminal record. And they immediately refuse when they find out that she has recently been released. You won't be able to hide your past. But this doesn't mean you have to give up. Recently, a classmate called me alone via video. I was surprised that I looked good. “What did you think I should look like after prison?” Everyone imagines that you become a prisoner there. That the imprint of prison cannot be washed off. It's not. You only need two things: family and government support in the form of employment.
Which region has the most of them?
Mordovia is called the “camp region” , since there are 12 colonies on the territory of this region. Three of them are intended for the female population.
Colonies in Mordovia, according to reviews of former prisoners, are places where there are no basic living conditions for people to live.
The following facts were noticed there:
- Bullying by the administration.
- Poor food.
- Lack of basic hygiene needs.
Uniforms are not issued in every case or in complete sets.
The list of correctional institutions in Mordovia looks like this:
- IK-13 in the village of Partsa;
- IK-14 there in the village of Partsa;
- IK-2 in the village of Yavas.
Women's colonies are also located in the central region , for example in the Oryol and Kursk regions, as well as in Moscow.
Read about the peculiarities of the execution of punishment in general regime correctional colonies here.
Prisons for women in Russia
In accordance with Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the strict regime for the female population has been abolished. Therefore, today there are no strict regime women’s colonies in Russia.
There are three types of colonies to which women who have committed crimes can be sent. These include:
- general mode;
- settlement;
- special regime.
The fourth type of punishment, serving a sentence in a maximum security colony, applies only to men .
general regime correctional institutions .
What is a maximum security colony?
For persons who have committed crimes repeatedly , there are strict regime colonies.
High security zones are considered the most severe for serving a sentence.
They do not include people who have committed a one-time theft or other offense.
In order for the court to make a decision to serve a sentence in a maximum security colony, the offender must have committed a repeat crime, or these are articles for the murder of several persons.
Since repeat offenders are imprisoned for committing murder and other serious crimes , communication between prisoners takes place in a raised voice.
Orders before 2003
Until 2003, women could be sentenced to serve their sentences under strict security conditions. Conditions in such places were created without taking into account the physiological as well as psychological needs of the female body.
After a woman served her sentence in such conditions, she became completely unsuitable for life in the wild.
Therefore, there has gradually become a need to make changes to the regime of stay of women who have committed serious crimes. Because they differ from men in physiological needs and social adaptation.
At the beginning of 2003, more than three hundred amendments were made to the PEC and the Criminal Code. With amendments in 2003, maximum security colonies for women were completely abolished. In addition the number of visits was increased , as were the chances of being released from prison on parole.
With impeccable behavior, women have a chance to get a date outside the correctional facility.
At first, the practice of dating outside the zone was indeed used, but this practice quickly ceased .
