The Moderate Voice posts (with a video) about cruelty in Russian prisons by guards against prisoners. Here is a quote from this post:
This article by Bret Stephens of The Wall Street Journal will make you wonder whether the cruelty of the Soviet era did, in fact, end decisively in 1991. The answer, in many regards, is no. Under Vladimir Putin, some of the most despicable and cruel tactics of the Communist years have been reinvented – from the intimidation of opposition leaders, to the killing of journalists, to the infamous brutality towards detainees, the “new” Russia is looking increasingly like its prior self.
But it is the incredible, systematic abuse of prisoners – not entirely dissimilar from Stalin’s gulag system – at which Stephens takes aim. He notes that of the 700 prison camps in Russia, around 50 are designated as Pytochnye kolonii — or, torture colonies. While these camps can’t be “compared to the Soviet Gulag in terms of scope or the percentage of prisoners who are innocent of any real crime, they are fast approaching it in terms of sheer cruelty.” Beatings, torture, deliberate lack of medical treatment, and arbitrary punishments are standard fare.
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