The Gulagu.net project took out of Russia and began publishing an archive of videos of torture in the institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service. According to the authors of the publication, they have about a thousand videos of how prisoners were tortured and humiliated.
The very first videos of torture in the prison TB hospital in Saratov caused a huge response, including at the official level: seven criminal cases were initiated. Three employees of the Saratov hospital have already been dismissed, and the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Saratov Region has resigned. But, unfortunately, we are not talking about some anomalous situation in Saratov alone: the videos published later featured FSIN institutions in the Belgorod region and Kamchatka, and The Insider published a heartbreaking story about a whole torture center in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
The reaction of the authorities
The archival videos and their descriptions are so monstrous that it was impossible even for the Russian authorities to ignore what was happening. Contrary to the established tradition, this time almost immediately after the publication was followed by checks and resignations, and even Putin’s press secretary confirmed that information about torture had come to the Kremlin’s attention.
Fedor Krasheninnikov
This is rather atypical, because the Gulagu.net project is one of those civic initiatives that are not encouraged by the Russian authorities. In May 2021, its founder, Vladimir Osechkin, announced that the project was being moved to Europe, as it was said, for the sake of ensuring the safety of employees. On July 30 this year, Roskomnadzor blocked the project’s website.
I’d like to believe that after such a scandal, the FSIN is waiting for long-overdue reforms. But are real, and not cosmetic, changes possible in this system in modern conditions?
Torture in the 21st century
Unfortunately, humiliation of citizens by the Russian state – or with its sanction – is not the exception, but rather the rule.
Modern society in Russia is structured in such a way that a citizen should not, and indeed cannot, resist the police or FSIN officers. Meanwhile, even if he committed a crime and was sentenced to imprisonment, torture and humiliation are not provided for by any laws and are directly contrary to the constitution. In reality, the inmates of Russian prisons find themselves at the mercy of the jailers. This is what makes the footage published by gulag.net scary.
It is striking that the camera captures not accidental excesses. The routine and organization of torture is terrifying. Torture and bullying take place within the walls of state institutions, which makes the Russian authorities fully responsible for them. We see that the state uses the services of people who know how to correctly record prisoners so that they do not interfere with their torturers, how to cause them suffering, from what angle to shoot.
Disgust from scenes of torture and beatings is reinforced by the fact that in many episodes people in front of cameras are subjected to sophisticated moral humiliation. It is incomprehensible to the mind that in the 21st century, within the walls of a state institution, the rituals of “sinking” that have arisen and codified among criminals are methodically reproduced and filmed for the archive. It turns out that the authorities not only organize torture and rape of prisoners, but also turn out to be the main guardians of the notorious “thieves’ concepts.”
“Human dignity is inviolable”
Torture and humiliation of citizens within the walls of state institutions is a crime against humanity, of which even the darkest authoritarian regimes are ashamed. They are ashamed, but they practice, because the use of torture affects not only their immediate victims, but also the whole society. In fact, this is a very effective measure of intimidating citizens: if you just turn out to be a criminal in the eyes of the authorities, you will go to prison and there you will be deprived not only of your freedom, but also of your dignity, health, and maybe even life.
The torture situation in Russian prisons is especially alarming amid mounting political persecution. Already now, not only criminals, but also hundreds of political prisoners are in places of deprivation of liberty. There is no guarantee that they will not end up on the well-oiled conveyor of torture and humiliation. Any Russian oppositionist or activist has been threatened at least once with the prospect of being imprisoned and experiencing the consequences of the notorious “sinking” there.
In the very first article of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany, written after the horrors of Nazism and with a great desire to never allow them to recur again, there are the following words: “Human dignity is inviolable. Respect and protect it is the duty of all state power.”
I would like to believe that someday in Russia the unconditional inviolability of human dignity will not only be proclaimed in the very first lines of the constitution, but will indeed become the highest value. Those responsible for state violence, for organizing torture and humiliation of people, must be condemned and condemned along with the system that made all this possible in the 21st century in Russia, which is proud of its victory over Nazism.
Author: Fedor Krasheninnikov – Russian political scientist and publicist, author of the books “After Russia” and “Cloudy Democracy”, which he wrote together with Leonid Volkov. Telegram: @fyodork, Twitter: @fyodorrrrr
The commentary expresses the personal opinion of the author. It may not coincide with the opinion of the Russian edition and Deutsche wave generally
See also:
.