Posted on 11/02/2011 4:03:37 AM PDT by Cardhu
A Russian prison official has been jailed for at least two months after footage of him punching, kicking and pulling the hair of female inmates was leaked online, sparking outrage and calling the country’s penal system into question.
The videos, which were filmed in 2008 at a prison in Russia’s eastern Amur region, shows a prison official, identified as deputy warden Sergei Zychkov, viciously beating his female detainees in a cell. Posted on October 24 2011, the graphic footage quickly caused a scandal in the blogosphere, prompting Russian authorities to open an official investigation into the case. Three days later, Zychkov was arrested on charges of abuse of power.
A prison official identified as deputy warden Sergei Zychkov punches, kicks and pulls the hair of a female detainee. Video posted on Youtube by MrArtur113.
According to Russian media, when asked about the beatings, Vitaly Karnyayenka, the chief warden at Amur’s women’s prison was taken by surprise, saying “I think this video is a fake”.
Russia’s penal system, however, has long been notorious for these types of abuses. In 2003, the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) published a report that found women in Russia’s prisons were often forced to live in overcrowded, unsanitary and violent environments. Some inmates told stories of being deprived of food, of being beaten by guards or other detainees, or more alarming still, of torture.
(Excerpt) Read more at observers.france24.com ...
Pretty much what I expect from Russia. A very dysfunctional place.
It ought to be shown in every prison in the US...to demonstrate that US prisoners are basically in country clubs compared to prisons elsewhere
Grimly hilarious. Has Russia's penal system ever been OUT of question?
To me a penal system like this is a good reason to abide laws and stay out of it.
The N Koreans said that UN prisoners were not treated any differently than ordinary criminals and other civil prisoners in that country. It was a level of negligence, abuse and brutality beyond anything you can imagine.
THAT is amazing! Americans have NO clue how backward, violent and inhumane the rest of the world is...yet Liberals constantly blather away about some BS global model that the US is supposed to emulate or a global test they say we are failing!!!! I honestly wish more Americans could afford to travel to some of these backwater s%$# holes... THEN they'd come home with an appreciation of just how well off we are here.
As long as no one had to put underwear on their heads, what’s the problem?
Bump
In Russia? Not possible!
/s
As they say, if you cannot do the time, don’t do the crime.
Amnesty International still considers the US worse because we have the death penalty. Russia does not (unless of course you are a journalist that crosses Putin).
You really think it all that diffrent here? A friend of mine (a cop) was on duty in the jail, and saw somehing similar here. He testified against his fellow officer, and was threatened, his family was threatened, and he was told unofficially that he would never get promoted because he testified against a fellow cop. He quit. The cop who did the beating got a slap on the wrist, and is still a cop.
In Russia, and other places you don't necessarily have to commit a crime to do the time. Read Gulag Archipelago
I know a President and some Congress critters that should be treated likewise.
As they say, if you cannot do the time, don’t do the crime.
you have no idea how ignorant that sounds in today’s totalitarian world.
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I see, so in your eyes, today’s totalitarian world is how different from the totalitarian worlds gone by? You think any of the prior Empires like the Roman, Ottoman, British, and or any of the other Kingdoms of the world were benevolent states? Seems to me you may be as ignorant of history of you say I am of the current world. So be it.
Also, prisoners of war are much better treated as prisoners of the American military then by any others.
A couple things: First, my dad said his last duty in WWII, just days before the official end of hostilities, was to sit out at an airfield in Germany. Prisoners coming in, were escorted to the officers in charge of the operation. The word went out to whomever wanted to ‘come in’ just EXACTLY how to approach and what to do.
Dad said the field was swamped around the clock... everything that could fly and some things that only a miracle could have got off the ground, came in there. (He said some planes were so damaged that you could see daylight through the fuselage). EVERYONE wanted to be US prisoners. Some of the men flying these ‘aircraft’ were not even pilots, had commandeered aircraft and barely got themselves landed in one piece. They brought friends, relatives, non military personnel and girlfriends, etc. out with them.
Secondly:
At the end of hostilities in Korea, the UN held many thousands of prisoners. Much of the delay in concluding the peace (such as it was) was because MOST of the people held in the UN camps expressly stated they did NOT want to go back. They were in better health, gained weight, had their wounds properly treated, etc. They knew that, in the UN camp, they lived better than they EVER had in their lives or EVER WOULD again!!!
In Russia, it’s more like “If you can’t pay the ‘fine’, don’t do the crime”.
To end up in Russian prison, you have to either be very broke, commit one of the few atrocities that you can’t buy your way out of, or mess with someone who has more money/power than you.
Russian prison is home to the very poor, the very evil and a few political/personal prisoners. Average Russians don’t care about the majority of them.
We aren’t too far behind with cops planting drugs on the innocent and ‘connected’ defense lawyers freeing the guilty.
Shocking to be sure. We have to remember that Russia’s law enforcement and courts still have a communist mentality. Its not going to disappear very quickly.
And this has to do with nihilism in Russia, with the belief the law isn’t there to protect you, that the rich and the very powerful make up their own rules. And with endemic corruption, there is much truth to this view.
The question is how to promote respect for the law, to ensure people have the right to peacefully express their differing opinions and to respect others’ rights.
In my opinion, the nature of people’s thinking needs to be changed. You cannot decree democracy. People have to feel themselves free persons. And they have to get rid of the notion of waiting for change to come from “on high.” They have to learn to do it for themselves.
Only then can shocking abuses like this be prevented and the people who commit them, be held truly accountable.
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