Translated material
Tolcno against slave conditions
The Internet published a letter of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova , known among her friends as Nadia Tolokno, in which she talks about the reasons that prompted her to declare a hunger strike. The Pussy Riot member complains about "slave conditions" in the colony: " My whole team in the sewing workshop works 16-17 hours a day. Sleep-at best, four hours a day. The day off happens every one and a half months. Almost all of Sunday-workers ."
In addition, according to Tolokonnikov, production standards are constantly increasing: if before the convicts it was necessary to sew 100 costumes per day, now - 150. According to the Pussy Riot participant, the norms have changed without warning, which is a violation of the Labor Code. “ The industrial zone reigns a menacingly nervous atmosphere ,” writes Nadezhda Tolokonnikov. “ Environmentally sleeping and exhausted by the endless pursuit of the fulfillment of an inhumanly huge norm of production, the princes are ready to break, scream in a voice, and fight because of an insignificant reason .” At the same time, according to Tolokonnikova, the colony administration prevents the prisoners to file complaints about such conditions: “ My main claim to the authorities is that they force people to be silent, not disdaining the lowest and most ripe methods, ” Tolokonnikov writes. “ All the rest stem from this problem-an inflated base, a 16-hour working day, etc. Feel free to depress the prisoners more and more . "
Pussy Riot members believes that she should have announced a hunger strike earlier, but she did not want to aggravate the conflict with the administration of a correctional institution. After she received threats from the deputy chief of the colony, Tolokonnikova changed the decision, explains the husband of activist Petr Verzilov :
- To date, Nadezhda realized that all means of influence on the colony have been exhausted. Since there is a threat of murder by the deputy chief of the colony of Lieutenant Colonel Yuri Kupriyanov and the fact of contacting the UK, she realized that it was more impossible to try to change the situation from the inside. She decided that there was a need to declare a hunger strike. The threats of Nadia were expressed in the fact that Kupriyanov, in a conversation with her, in response to a request to establish a softer regime for women than a 16-hour working day, said: "This may be followed by events after which you will not be bad, because in the next world it is not bad." Since it is known that Lieutenant Colonel Kupriyanov is a person that controls the behavior of convicts in the colony, she has reason to perceive this threat seriously.
- What are the conditions for stopping the hunger strike?
-Nadia requirements: rectify the situation in sewing production, cancel the 16-hour working day and the Gulag norms, and rectify the household situation. Nadia also requires a transfer to another colony, because she believes that due to the threats that sounded in this camp, it will be impossible for her to continue.
- As far as one can judge, she has some health problems. In your opinion, how much hunger strike can it damage it and how decisively it is?
- Indeed, Nadi has problems with headaches. Including her, one cannot sew for a sewing machine for a long time, which she tried to do in the last couple of months. She is very tough, because she believes that this is the only chance to rectify the situation in the colony, and intends to fight further. It is difficult to say how it can end ...
Representatives of the Federal Penitentiary Service confirmed the fact of a hunger strike. In an interview with Interfax agency, an employee of the press service said that Nadezhda Tolokonnikov was at breakfast in the morning, later an application for a hunger strike was received from her. The interlocutor of the agency also stated that Tolokonnikova’s husband, Peter Verzilov and the lawyer of the convicted person, was blackmailing the deputy chief of the colony Yuri Kupriyanov: they demanded to transfer Pussy Riot participant to another detachment and employ him in an art workshop. In case of non-fulfillment of these conditions, the defense of Tolokonnikova, according to the representative of the press service of the FSIN, threatened to send to the Investigative Committee, Prosecutor General, the media a statement that Kupriyanov threatens Tolokonniki murder. A similar message is posted on the FSIN website.
According to the human rights organization of Agora, the lawyer of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova Irina Khrunova does not agree with the version of the representatives of the colony:
- I perceive Kupriyanov’s statement as a forced, however, a belated protective reaction to the appeals of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who accused him of a serious crime. On September 17, I really, together with Peter Verzilov, was in the colony. We talked about the conditions of the content of hope that they do not comply with all the norms prescribed in the legislation and its state of health. However, there was no attempt of blackmail, which the media are in a hurry to inform the media now, ”said Khrunova.
The chairman of the Public Supervisory Commission of Mordovia Gennady Morozov in an interview with the Russian media denied reports of threats to Tolokonnikova and did not confirm the information about the working conditions in the colony described by Tolokonnikov.
Human rights activist, member of the Moscow Public Supervisory Commission Zoya Svetova believes that it is necessary to listen to the words of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova:
- I know well the conditions in the Mordovian colonies, especially in female. For five years, I visited Zara Murtazaliev several times a year, who was serving her term in IR No. 13. This colony is located in the same village as IR No. 14, where Tolokonnikov sits. I know well both from the words of Zara, and according to other prisoners that female Mordovian colonies are the most terrible colonies in Russia. There, prisoners are beaten, humiliated, forced to plead guilty, if we are talking about political prisoners, such as Zara Murtazalieva, Svetlana Bakhmina and now - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. She writes now that as soon as she came to the colony, the boss said that she should plead guilty. They work with such prisoners. I am sure: what Nadezhda Tolokonnikova wrote is true.
- How effective is hunger strike as a method of struggle for a prisoner?
- A hunger strike is an effective measure when they are supported from the will, when people, journalists, human rights activists monitor the hunger strike that the prisoner holds. Now it is necessary that people from the Investigative Committee and human rights activists go to check in IR No. 14 - to talk with prisoners and with the hope of finding out what really happens there. Only in this case, if there is publicity, if there is control of the public, civil society, law enforcement agencies, its hunger strike will reach the goal. In Mordovia there is a public observation commission, but it is absolutely servile: there are former employees of the prison system and prosecutor's office. I came across these people: they are meaningless and fully support what the jailers do. There is no hope for these people, so it is necessary that human rights activists go from Moscow, the commission of the Commissioner for Human Rights, ”Zoya Svetova believes.
Pussy Riot members, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich, were sentenced to two years in a colony under the article “Hooliganism” for a punk moleben performed in February 2012, entitled “Bogoroditsa, Putin Strait” in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Ekaterina Samutsevich later the punishment was changed to conditional.