Ukraine War Day #836: STRANA Exposes Torture in Ukrainian Prisons – Part II

Dear Readers:

Today continuing (and concluding) this horrific story about the torture, abuse, and economic exploitation of Ukrainian prisoners in the criminal colony system. We saw that the Ukrainian DBR (roughly equivalent to the American FBI) is investigating complaints, and we shall see how that goes.

DBR investigates the Commandant of one of the colonies.

We saw that the systematic torture was part of an economic scheme to extort money from the inmates: a “tithe” (actually half) of their salary from ordinary inmates in the “Red Zones”. But the colony administration gets really greedy when they land a wealthy inmate like Igor Mizrakh, a media entrepreneur and chief editor of the political journal Rating.

In May of 2023 Mizrakh was arrested and charged with corruption. He didn’t survive very long in the prison colony: In July 2023 he was rushed to the hospital from his prison cell, he was in a coma, and the doctors were not able to save his life. An examination of his body led to the conclusion that he had been beaten to death. As is often the case, the death of a prominent businessman aroused more public ire than the many similar deaths of ordinary zeks; and this incident is what led to the current investigation.

We discussed how every new arrival at these “Red Zones” is introduced to a violent hazing that is designed to break their spirit. After which they readily agree to turn over half their prison salary to the administration. Not every prisoner agrees to this, however, and these are the ones that are punished most severely. But even the obedient zeks are beaten at random times, for random and probably made-up infringements, just to keep them in line.

Humiliation And Blackmail

The colonies and Red Zones are teeming with actual criminals; not everybody is a political prisoner. The actual thieves are known as “suits”, as in “suits of cards”. They are also tortured mercilessly, like everybody else.

The newly-arriving zek is first put into [medical?] quarantine for a few days. But even there, minions of the warden will burst in and give him his first beating. Since this whole thing is primarily a money-making scheme, they seek, above all, to find kompromat against the zek. Part of the initial process is to physically humiliate the zek and thus add him to the caste of those who have been “offended” (обиженных). Physical humiliation might consist of holding his head in the toilet, pissing on him, rubbing his face with a cloth that was used to clean toilets. All of this is captured on videotape. The video is handed over to the Warden or Godfather of the colony. Usually this is enough to make the zek obedient, because he wouldn’t want anyone to see him being humiliated in this manner. And thus he is blackmailed into paying his regular tithe, in return for the Warden not publishing the tapes.

Any Consequences?

The STRANA investigative reporters spoke to inmates, attorneys, and officials of the penitentiary system. Everybody confirmed that the torture system in the prison colonies has gotten completely out of control. The perpetrators of this abuse are protected at the highest levels of the prison administration.

After the war started [Russian invasion] the situation got much worse, because there was ever more pressure to extract money from businessmen. One former prison official who later became a well- known Defense Attorney, stated to the reporters: “Before the war, there was some accountability before the courts. And suspects had a better chance of staying free, not being locked up, provided they had nothing to do with politics. But after 24 February, the situation sharply deteriorated. Judges became more obedient [to the Prosecution], and very rarely refuse any requests for detention.”

Ukrainian businessman Konstantin Zhivago

Due to this, officials of the prison system suddenly realized they had a “golden vein” available to them. They could open frivolous cases against wealthy entrepreneurs and extract as much money as they wanted to, for starters demanding bribes to keep them out of jail. “And those who refuse to pay up, well, they are sent to the colony and hammered down as cruelly as one can imagine. They have built a conveyer-belt of violence and extortion.”

Given Ukraine’s dismal track record in this respect, this may give supplementary arguments to European judges to refuse requests for extradition. Already, Europeans are wary of granting extradition requests to Ukraine. One example of this, is the refusal of a French judge to extradite Ukrainian businessman Konstantin Zhivago, citing the “uncertain situation” in Ukraine’s justice system.