There was a damning new post on the subject of Russian jails by Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster. Take a look at this excerpt:

Dozens of victims and their lawyers accuse the Russian authorities of trying to cover up countless cases of torture and of refusing to press charges against prison staff. The accusations come after authorities in Russia’s Irkutsk oblast region announced earlier this year that proceedings in four torture cases had been dropped. The list of those allegedly affected is much longer.

Sergey Savelyev, a former prisoner, leaked 40 gigabytes of video and photo material from Russian prisons to Russian human rights group Gulagu.net in October 2021. The footage shows prisoners being severely mistreated in various institutions, not just in Irkutsk. The head of Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service, Alexander Kalashnikov, was forced to resign in November. In some oblasts — administrative regions — prison officers were charged and dismissed; in others, the problem was largely ignored.

Read the full article here. Also, visit the main Democracy Chronicles section on World Democracy or our articles on Worldwide Corruption.