Russian political prisoner and mathematician Azat Miftakhov reports brutal torture at Arctic prison colony, names guards who abused him

On April 21 — likely the day after he arrived in Kharp — Miftakhov was taken at about 1 p.m. to the administration building, where the operational department is located. Polar Owl prisoners call the place the “Lubyanka,” a reference to the Moscow headquarters of the Soviet Union’s KGB and its successor agency, Russia’s FSB. Miftakhov said he was met there by two convicts: one with the surname Bulanov and another named Mikhail. They brought him to a toilet and ordered him to clean it, but he refused.

Miftakhov was then taken into an office where prison employee Mikhail Sobolev was present. Miftakhov said the conversation lasted about one and a half hours. At first, Sobolev seemed to him like a “calm, reasonable person,” but he kept saying that Miftakhov had to do everything the administration told him to do, including cleaning the toilet in the operational department.

“Then, when I refused again, he either pressed some button or made a call, after which those two convicts ran into the office. They knocked me to the floor. Bulanov sat on my torso. ... Mikhail sat on my legs and began wrapping them with tape. ... Mikhail hit me several times in the groin with his fist to make me stop resisting,” Miftakhov said.

According to Miftakhov, the attackers also tied his hands with tape. After that, they turned him onto his stomach, and Sobolev sat on top of him. At that point, Bulanov began hitting his heels with a wooden hammer.

“I started screaming in pain. ... It hurt, and at the same time I could hardly breathe. I began choking and losing consciousness. When my screams grew quieter, Bulanov stopped hitting my heels. They waited until I came to, and then they started hitting my heels again and pressing down on my back, and it was hard for me to breathe.”

The Insider has independently confirmed that 40-year-old Mikhail Sobolev from Tyumen works at IK-18 “Polar Owl.” Data from leaked online databases suggests that his monthly income in 2022 amounted to roughly 100,000 rubles a month (just over $1,300 at current rates). Sobolev’s status on the social network VK reads “life is beautiful!!!”, and his subscriptions include his employer, the official account of FSIN in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, and the communities called “Corporation of Evil,” and “Moonshiners.”