On January 27, 2022, in “Special Envoy”, a whistleblower reveals a system of torture in Russian prisons. A refugee in France, Sergei Saveliev told journalists about twenty videos of extreme violence. They contain unbearable images of beatings, rapes and humiliations. According to him, in this prison of Saratov, in the south of Russia, these videos were filmed with recorders entrusted to other prisoners by the guards themselves.
Why do the perpetrators of these abuses film their own crimes? Does this system, which seems to be straight inherited from the gulag, have other aims than pure violence? “Special Envoy” obtained the testimony, extremely rare, of a former prisoner of Saratov prison. The video he mentions in this extract has not been found, but he says he was filmed, and describes the abuse he allegedly suffered.
Filmed rape, a technique of humiliation and blackmail
During his detention, Alexei Makarov was accused of having prepared a mutiny. A written confession was demanded of him. Summoned to the administrative quarters of the prison at 2 p.m., he immediately understood what awaited him when he saw the “beating squad“.”They re-read the paper I had written, he says, and they said to me ‘My old man, it’s not going to pass’…“After five minutes of ‘beating’, he says he suffered two hours of rape at the hands of other inmates,”until 4.30 p.m., until the evening check“.
A few days later, another rape, he says, this time in front of a camera. “We have a kompromat on you“, his torturers would have told him: a compromising video that they would have threatened to broadcast on YouTube.
“So that all this does not come out, the guys transferred crazy sums”
This prison “kompromat” would be the administration’s ultimate means of pressure, explains Alexei Makarov: “It’s to hold people in their claws, because there are different castes in prison. By committing such acts, by raping someone, by filming them, everyone knows very well that if it becomes known, the person concerned will find themselves in the lowest caste, that of the humiliated.“
This blackmail technique would be used in various ways, he explains. These videos would serve “extracting information, recruiting informants or, most often, extorting money“. He himself says he paid 50,000 rubles (about 600 euros).
Excerpt from “Russia: the evil of prisons”, an investigation broadcast in “Special Envoy” on January 27, 2022.
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