Pussy Riot has moved on

Convicted members of the Pussy Riot group Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were transported to colonies in Mordovia and the Perm region. Tolokonnikova’s husband, Pyotr Verzilov, announced this on Twitter with reference to the administration of the pre-trial detention center where the convicts were kept. What awaits girls in these colonies?

Maria Noel, "Seated Rus'"

From Mordovia we received information from one of our charges that women prisoners were being beaten there. It seems to me that close monitoring of women's colonies with the participation of journalists and the public is necessary. It is known about Mordovia that the conditions of detention there are the most severe, but everything is complicated by the fact that women usually remain silent about this.

Gennady Morozov, Chairman of the Public Monitoring Commission of Mordovia

We have very good living conditions. About beatings - this is not serious. I already know the situation. There is nothing like that. Convicts work for us. The food is excellent, so there are no complaints about food, medical care, or harassment from the administration. It's practically impossible. Our media will write about such a blizzard, but here we need to see the realities.

Sergey Vladimirovich Isaev, director of the Perm regional human rights center

There are only three women's colonies in the Perm region, one for those who are serving their sentences repeatedly. Consequently, Maria Alekhina can end up in one of two things: either 32nd in Perm, or in Bereznyaki. City colonies are brick buildings. In the 32nd colony there is a regional women's hospital. Both colonies are working; they carry out orders for sewing clothes for the colony and the Ministry of Defense. In Bereznyaki they still do folk crafts: sculpting, cutting. This is an interesting direction.

By the way, you can play volleyball. In 2005, we conducted master classes on Arabic dances. The administration meets halfway, however, only as an incentive measure.

Life there is quite smooth. Conditions are normal; male colonies are much worse.

There is no unemployment - full employment, which is probably not bad: your head is busy, there will be no unnecessary moaning, and the psychological stress is less. Yes, and women receive good money, however, only if they fulfill the norm, but they are just high and need to be revised. The salary for light work is up to 5 thousand rubles, but in the clothing industry it is from 7 to 11 thousand. True, only 25% of the salary goes to the personal account, minus the costs of their maintenance. They work six days a week. A total of 40 hours a week. The assortment in stores is quite wide, and there are also hygiene products. There are even hairdressers.

In the Berezniki colony, there were comments about the severity of disciplinary sanctions. In winter, the corners inside the rooms froze for a long time. But then everything was fixed.

Most of the complaints we receive do not concern the conditions of detention, but contacts with the will, family relationships, housing issues, even citizenship issues, oddly enough. There are issues with working hours (too increased workload), but, unfortunately, this is quite difficult to establish. The same applies to injuries. Sometimes facts are hidden. We didn’t have any problems in the women’s colonies, but we received complaints from the men’s colonies.

In general, women's colonies are little frills and little curtains. Unlike the men's, it is quite clean there. Institutions are developing noticeably, and living conditions have become much better.

Nina Silina, served three months in the Mordovian colony in the case of Eduard Limonov , under Art. 222 (illegal acquisition, storage, transportation and carrying of firearms - editor's note)

I don’t think that since I was there, which was in 2003, anything could have improved there. It just got worse.

If a prisoner plows from morning to night and does not show off, then no one pays attention to him. There were no refusals to work with us, nor were there any beatings. The aunts could quarrel, but everyone tried not to lead to a fight. Who wants to sit in a punishment cell?

There are no amenities in the detachment. The detachment is a barracks, there is cold water there. In the barracks it is forbidden to even take off your socks. Bunk beds and nightstand. Soap is in short supply. Everything is in short supply. If hygiene supplies are sent from outside, then they will be available. No - get out as you want. There is one toilet for everyone - a village barn with twenty holes, where you cannot enter without a gas mask. Especially in the morning - everyone starts smoking there, and more smoke is mixed in with the stench.

There was a bathhouse, for one hour to wash the entire detachment once a week. So you stand in line at the tap for about forty minutes. In the bathhouse at night, when there are no guards, the convicts wash their underpants and socks.

Everything was inconvenient. You get up at 6 am. There is exercise at 6.05, before that you need to make your bed and run to the toilet. After exercise, breakfast. After breakfast, everyone runs to the “industrial zone” (industrial zone - editor's note). There are sewing shops and a cutting shop. The worst was the construction team. In a normal one you sleep for 8 hours, but in a construction one you could go without sleep for days. When the women built the fence, they carried such logs that not every man could lift.

In 2003, industrial workers received 200 rubles, and builders received 500 rubles. But with this money it was still impossible to buy anything. The local store only has Prima and some kind of prehistoric tea. So the women sent money to the children if anyone had it free.

There were also night shifts, they began after dinner. So some prisoners worked during the day, others at night.

They fed us pasta, peas, and potatoes. When I arrived. I was told that the nutrition had improved. Sometimes they threw some kind of fish with worms, sometimes they threw a little stew into the pasta, so that there was a smell.

Medical care was even worse than in the pre-trial detention center. I had to run to the medical unit before work, that is, instead of breakfast. Medicines, as in the joke: analgin tablet in half - from the head and everything else.

The contingent is not the most intelligent women, although there are different ones.

At first they treated me with caution, but then they got used to it.