‘Bravery and defiance’ exposes the horrifying scale of prisoner abuse in the Gulags

In an extraordinary film broadcast by BBC Eye Investigations earlier this month, we heard from former prisoners about the largely hidden world of Russia’s prisons. What was uncovered made for horrifying viewing.

Rumours about abuse and torture in Russian prisons have been circulating for years. But in 2021, bodycam footage began to emerge from inside one of Russia’s most notorious prisons.  The story of how the bodycam footage emerged from the secret nightmarish world of Russia’s prison system is one of bravery and defiance. 

In the winter of 2021, an anonymous source contacted Vladimir Osechkin, the founder of Gulagu.net project. They focus on defending prisoners’ rights and broadcast filming of violence against prisoners with the hope that publicity will lead to reform. The source was a former prisoner, Sergey Saveliev, who was held at a prison hospital in the Saratov region, close to Russia’s border with Kazakhstan.  He was responsible for managing the torture footage. It would contain many hours of prisoners being raped, beaten and humiliated by both prison staff and ‘capos’ – prisoners acting under the authorities’ control.

Sergey told the BBC: “The body cameras are working all the time, (prison) staff have to have them on. I would get orders from the head of security to give a prisoner a camera too. Then I would save the footage and show it to him.” 

He decided to start collecting the footage. “When I could, I methodically put everything together and hid it. To simply walk past and do nothing is to recognise it as normal. But it’s not normal at all.”

In one distressing scene, a prisoner is seen face down while dozens of prison staff beat him with batons. Watching footage of one scene from the bodycam footage, Vladimir says: “Please look at the expression on this man’s face. Look how he smiles, watching how the others are going to rape someone and capture it on camera”.  

As a veteran of exposing the brutality of Russia’s prisons he recognises some of the interplay of the torture footage. ”And pay attention to the music playing loudly in the background in the corridor so that other prisoners won’t know what’s going on. He (prison guard) gives signs on how to twist or spread the man’s legs so that they can rape him.” A prisoner is heard to say on camera: “Don’t! Don’t guys …I am begging you.”

BBC reporter Oleg Boldyrev told Inside Time that the film has been filmed over a ten-month period. In the film, Oleg notes that footage shows victims are handcuffed – equipment only available to jailers. But most telling is the fact that the torture was filmed, catalogued and kept in the prison computer system.

Working with Sergey to show the torture footage, Vladimir has no doubt this is a systematic approach by the prison authorities saying: “All together, it proves that there is a torture conveyor belt, concealed by the administration…They knew it. They controlled it. And they kept it all secret”. 

Russia has the highest number of prisoners per capita in Europe and Russia’s prisons have virtually no independent oversight. Thoughts turn to how the Saratov torture was able to happen. Under Russian law there is no such thing as torture. Oleg Boldyrev explains the uses that prison authorities can have for footage of prisoners being beaten, humiliated raped. “Russian prisons operate according to an elaborate set of rules: prisoners are sodomized, urinated on, brought to the lowest level. A person becoming untouchable. Videos of the abuse can be kept and used to blackmail prisoners.“

Alexei Makarov spent six years in prison for assault. Part of this term he served in the Saratov prison with Sergey. Makarov also collaborated with the prison administration, but at some point he himself became a victim of rape. “It happened like this – the three of them took me into the office of the head of the prison. For ten minutes they beat me, ripped my clothes. And for, let’s say, the next two hours they raped me every other minute with mop handles. One would just stick it in and the other one twist it.  When I would lose consciousness, they would splash me with cold water and throw me back onto the table.”

Unsurprisingly, victims of torture at the hands of the Russian prison authorities are reluctant to come forward and understanding how prevalent this brutality is can be hard to assess.  However, Proekt Media found that between 2015 and 2019, allegations of torture were made in 90% of Russia’s regions. The BBC has analyzed thousands of court documents and found that during that time, 41 members of the prison service were convicted in the most serious prisoner abuse trials. Almost half of them were handed suspended sentences.

Media reports of the prisoner abuse footage at Saratov prison led to action by President Putin.

High level prison staff were replaced. Although the Saratov torture videos had highlighted the issue, Russia’s biggest prison torture scandal remains largely hidden. And the work of human rights activists like Vladimir Osechkin at Gulagu.net goes on.

Charlotte Rowles is a freelance journalist 

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

You can search our Solicitor & Barrister database for listings of solicitors & barrister in your area that provide the services you require. Solicitors Barristers

Advertise your business here to out highly defined target audience.

Advertise your business here to out highly defined target audience.

You can search our Solicitor & Barrister database for listings of solicitors & barrister in your area that provide the services you require. Solicitors Barristers

Design and hosted by Karubu