Follow RT on Russia’s notoriously tough and uncompromising prisons hardly have a reputation as a one-way ticket to the top, but for some lucky lags, inmate labor is proving to be an extremely lucrative sideline while they’re serving time.
The country’s Federal Penitentiary Service revealed to Moscow’s Izvestiya daily on Thursday that, while most prisoners take home peanuts in their pay packets for toiling in manual and industrial jobs, a small number were able to rack up relatively large salaries compared to their friends and families on the outside. Kristina Panshina, the department s spokeswoman, told journalists 715 new roles had been created across 11 regions of the country as part of a drive to increase the availability of work for those behind bars.
Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, speaking in a court appearance via videolink, accused the prison where is being held of censoring his newspapers by cutting out articles.
May 22, 2021
POKROV, Russia – He looked gaunt and weak, his skin stretched tightly over his skull. Video of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny that emerged in late April has focused attention on a Russian prison system that, former inmates say, is designed to break convicts, not reform them, and where medical neglect is rife.
Navalny had just ended a 24-day hunger strike when he appeared by video link at a Moscow court hearing, his latest skirmish with Russian prosecutors. His refusal to eat was in protest at the prison authority’s refusal to allow an outside specialist to treat him for back pain.
UPDATE 1-Jailed Kremlin critic Navalny more or less recovered after hunger strike - prison official Reuters 2 hrs ago
(Adds detail, context)
MOSCOW, May 20 (Reuters) - Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has more or less recovered his health following a hunger strike and has the possibility of communicating with his family, the head of Russia s Federal Penitentiary Service said on Thursday.
Navalny, President Vladimir Putin s most prominent domestic critic, is serving a 2-1/2 year jail sentence for parole violations he says were trumped up. I can say he has more or less recovered his health, the TASS news agency quoted Alexander Kalashnikov, head of the Federal Penitentiary Service, as saying. He already weighs 82 kg (181 lbs). He is eating normally and has the possibility of communicating with his family.
20 May 2021 - 9:31
FILE PHOTO: Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny attends a court hearing in Moscow, Russia February 20, 2021. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov//File Photo
Reuters
Moscow: Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has more or less recovered his health following a hunger strike and has the possibility of communicating with his family, the head of Russia s Federal Penitentiary Service said on Thursday.
Navalny, President Vladimir Putin s most prominent domestic critic, is serving a 2-1/2 year jail sentence for parole violations he says were trumped up. I can say he has more or less recovered his health, the TASS news agency quoted Alexander Kalashnikov, head of the Federal Penitentiary Service, as saying. He already weighs 82 kg (181 lbs). He is eating normally and has the possibility of communicating with his family.