"All zones have become galoshes": Vladimir Osechkin - on the new orders in colonies and prisons

In an interview on YouTube channel, Vladimir Osechkin talks about Mark Feigin (video here ) about the riot in the Irkutsk colony number 15, about sadists in the FSIN system and about new orders in Russian prisons:

"I’ll start with the private and then move on to the general situation.

I published the official response of the FSIN, which, after our statements and inspections, admitted that in the Irkutsk colony No. 15 the combined detachment of special forces of the GUFSIN used violence and special means against 415 convicts. For the first time in the history of the last 15-20 years, the FSIN openly applies brute physical force against hundreds of prisoners. In fact, there was no separation of rebels from non-rebels. All those who took part in the mass protest in the Irkutsk colony number 15 were severely beaten. They beat everyone without exception, and we managed to publish part of the frames. There mercilessly beaten the people who were sitting on the floor, hands behind their heads, although they did not show disobedience, they carried out all orders, sat down on the ground. They were beaten very cruelly, and it was heard how they wheeze when they were beaten, how internal organs are broken from these blows.

Why did this happen in Irkutsk? In early March, Vladimir Putin appointed Colonel Leonid Sagalakov as head of the Irkutsk GUFSIN. We conducted anti-torture investigations against him several times and published for several years in a row.

At first it was in Khakassia, he was there the first deputy chief of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Khakassia. I must say that Khakassia is a very cruel region for torture and detention of prisoners. Then Sagalakov was transferred to a promotion, he became the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Bryansk region. We made a documentary about this and help the families of those killed who were killed in the torture colony number 6.

The newly arrived prisoners were immediately beaten immediately upon their exit from the truck. They were placed in a L-shaped pose, their arms were wound behind their backs, they were led through the corridor and kicked on both sides with their hands and feet. Beatings continued in search cameras, surveillance cameras were specially turned off, and DVRs were turned off. In fact, from the first hours there was a torture system that aims to break a person and turn him into an obedient biorobot. If a person raises his eyes and tries to remember those who torment him, they kill him. This happened on December 8, 2019, when Roman Sarychev, who was brought to colony No. 6 of the Bryansk UFSIN, was killed in the first two hours of his stay in the colony. We are now helping his family, we have opened a criminal case, because we cannot get out of the fact of the murder, there are traces of torture, internal organs are broken, and powerful hemorrhages. But in custody there is only one major Shevtsov, the rest involved in torture and murder are not prosecuted ...

Therefore, it is clear what happened in Irkutsk ... In response to harsh methods, the prisoners began to protest against the beatings, the protest rally turned into a riot, which ended in a brutal bloody mess in which more than 400 prisoners were injured.

Unfortunately, after the Medvedev thaw, the FSB and FSO general Kornienko, who headed the FSIN for seven years, first came. During these seven years, the FSIN has become a complete appendage of the FSB. Specifically, the FSB of Russia has an “M” department and there is a second department in it, which fully oversees the entire Penitentiary Service. In fact, FSB operatives are heads even in relation to the heads of regional departments of the FSIN. The Chekists control the operational environment, and the operatives of the Main Operational Directorate of the FSIN are subordinates of the operatives of the Directorate "M" of the FSB of Russia. Therefore, what the FSB will decide regarding this or that person, the FSIN operatives will implement it.

As for the representatives of the criminal world, the “watchmen,” the “law enforcers,” and “thieves in law,” FSB operatives took control of them. If 10 years ago they talked about the division into “red” and “black zones”, when the former controlled the administration of the colony and the latter controlled crime, now all the colonies have become the same. I call them "galoshes." Outside they are "black", and inside - "red". Outside, the myth of the hierarchy in the colony is preserved, when “positivist” and “looking” are at the top, and “lowered” and “offended” are at the very bottom, and the bulk of them are between them, and criminals can transfer any prisoner to the very bottom of the hierarchy. But this is a myth. There are no such zones left. There are regime zones where there are sections of discipline and order. But the majority turned into a "galosh", because through it it is much more convenient to manage the bulk of the prisoners. Zones with strong sections of discipline and order, where the administration kicks, tortures and rapes convicts with the hands of activists, is a rather scandalous story. It attracts the attention of human rights defenders, journalists, members of the PMC. And even if there is censorship in Russia, and the PMCs are all controlled, all the same, such zones attract attention. Look at Moscow detention centers. It is impossible to make a regime pre-trial detention center, because here the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Investigative Committee, the Putin Council, and journalists are at hand. Therefore, the "galosh" is implemented here. The positivists are called, they are told: either we send you by the stage, and they let you down there, take a video, and you are not a person, or you carry out our instructions. 15, 20, 30 years ago, the investigators needed to carry out complex intelligence work so that no one knew that the “thief” goes not to the lawyer, but to the operative. Now the zones and prisons are flooded with mobile phones, and now you can write a message to "mom", "aunt" or "beloved woman", but in fact, this is contact with an operative.

This negative trend is spreading. Chekists, special police officers became much smarter than during the Gulag. And we call this system the modern Gulag, because even then this system was used against political prisoners, against ordinary people, in order to humiliate and integrate them into this system. In principle, the same thing happens, because any person at large in Russia understands that he can end up in jail. And if he is in prison, he has a social elevator in front of him. He will never go upstairs. He either remains in the bulk of the male mass, or if there is an order for him from the operatives to criminals, they begin to humiliate and omit him. And unfortunately, in Russian prisons and colonies there is a caste of people: who are called “offended” or “omitted,” who are not interested in anyone, neither human rights activists, nor journalists, nor prosecutors deal with this problem. But she is. And there is also a caste. Among the prisoners there is an animal fear that they can humiliate, lower you, rape you, and you will find yourself at the very bottom, and no one even visits these people. Human rights activists do not come to them. Prosecutors do not pay any attention to them. These people have no rights at all. Now the prison system is the 21st century gulag. Only the special services have the most modern technologies, and they can do everything. They control the investigative committee, the prosecutor's office, and the courts. And then the road to complete arbitrariness is open.