Human rights activists report another video leak evidencing abuse in Russian prisons

Gulagu.net (No to the Gulag) founder Vladimir Osechkin says the human rights project has received another leaked archive of videos evidencing the torture and abuse of inmates in Russian prisons.

As reported by Dozhd television, Osechkin told journalist Alexander Plyushchev about the new leak during a livestream on his YouTube channel on Tuesday, October 12.

According to the Gulagu.net founder, the new recordings were leaked to the human rights group by a programmer and former inmate known as “Sergey” — the same source who provided Gulagu.net with more than 40 gigabytes of video files from Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) computers in the Saratov region.

Allegedly, the programmer told Osechkin that he was able to gain access to videos from FSIN facilities not only in the Saratov region, but also in other parts of Russia. Osechkin claimed that while the programmer was in prison, he had access to a departmental network, which allowed open access to video files from FSIN facilities in various regions.

Osechkin declined to comment on the contents of the new archive, saying only that none of the recordings have been made public as of yet.

• After announcing that it had obtained a massive video leak in early October, Gulagu.net released several clips that appeared to show the physical and sexual abuse of inmates at a FSIN tuberculosis hospital in the Saratov region. The videos prompted regional investigators to launch seven criminal cases on charges of sexual assault and abuse of power. The Russian Investigative Committee’s central office quickly took control of the investigation.
• In addition, five FSIN employees were fired, including the tuberculosis hospital’s chief, Pavel Gatsenko, and the FSIN’s department head in the Saratov region, Alexey Fedotov.