The first prisoners were sent to construction sites in Moscow and the Moscow region

“We now want to see the Vostochny training ground. In that region, there are many historically concentrated places of detention. Therefore, instead of people sitting in the camps there, let them work", - the Dozhd TV channel quotes Khusnullin's words.

Khusnullin admitted that during the Soviet era he personally worked at a brick factory with convicts.

“From my own experience, I can say that yes, the special commandant's office, they lived in hostels, worked on construction sites, or they worked in housing and communal services, in agriculture. That is, there was this practice”, - Khusnullin said.

The idea to replace scarce migrants with prisoners was previously announced by the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Alexander Kalashnikov. According to the ministry, out of 482 thousand people who are now in places of detention, about 188 thousand can be sent to forced labor. The idea aroused indignation among a part of society, who reminded that construction sites in the USSR were "littered with the bones of GULAG prisoners". During the Stalinist repressions, thousands of people thrown into the "construction sites of the century" became victims of the inhuman conditions of detention in labor camps. According to Kalashnikov, "this will not be a gulag".

The Federal Penitentiary Service said that already now some prisoners "receive up to 220 thousand", however, most Russians did not believe this, noting that if this were true, half of the country would go to jail to "improve their financial situation". A number of experts suggested that Russia is just waiting for a "new GULAG" and the triumph of free labor.

Earlier it became known that in June, by agreement with Russian Railways, up to 600 prisoners could be sent to the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline, for the construction of which there are not enough civilian workers.