Russia prison rape scandal revealed

• Former prisoners who talked with the BBC described how they were routinely raped and tortured in Russian jails.
• An insider released video of similar abuse last year, and now victims have spoken to the BBC about why it occurs and how they are seeking redress.
• Last year, videos of horrible prisoner abuse were released to a human rights organization and made international news, drawing attention to the Saratov Prison Hospital in southwest Russia.

Former prisoners who talked with the BBC described how they were routinely raped and tortured in Russian jails. An insider released video of similar abuse last year, and now victims have spoken to the BBC about why it occurs and how they are seeking redress.

Last year, videos of horrible prisoner abuse were released to a human rights organisation and made international news, drawing attention to the Saratov Prison Hospital in southwest Russia.

Before being moved there in 2018 as part of a six-year sentence for assault, Alexei Makarov was aware of its notoriety. Prisoners who are transferred to Saratov from other detention facilities in the area have reported that medical justifications were made up so they could be tortured in secret. With regard to health quarantine regulations, prison hospitals in Russia have even less independent control than Russian prisons.

Makarov sincerely hoped he would be spared because he was so sick—he had been diagnosed with TB. But he claims that while he was there, he was raped twice.

According to victims and experts, the violence Makarov and others have experienced is always approved by the jail administration and is used to blackmail, threaten, or coerce confessions from prisoners.

The Russian government has been compelled to respond to the nation’s torture controversy as a result of high-profile disclosures of damaging video. According to Proekt, an independent Russian media organization, there were reports of torture in 90% of the regions of Russia between 2015 and 2019. But little has happened. The BBC revealed that 41 personnel of the prison service were convicted in the most serious prisoner mistreatment convictions after analyzing hundreds of court papers from that era. But only suspended sentences were imposed on roughly half of them. The BBC spoke to several ex-prisoners about their experiences inside Russian prisons, including Makarov.

According to Makarov, the first time he was tortured was in February 2020. He claims that after refusing to acknowledge a rumored conspiracy against the jail administration, three guys subjected him to ongoing, severe sexual torture.

They beat me and tore my clothes for ten minutes. They used mop handles to rape me every other minute for the next, oh, two hours, roughly. They would put me back onto the table after they sprayed me with cold water when I passed out.