What is known about the prison colony whose employees were taken hostage today?
NeMoscow has compiled the key facts:
🔸IK-19 in the Volgograd region is a maximum security penal colony in city of Surovikino, 2 hours' drive away from Volgograd. More than a thousand prisoners are held here.
🔸Events in the colony have been covered by the media on numerous occasions. In April 2024, the former deputy head of the facility Grigory Belenkov He was sentenced to seven years for taking bribes from prisoners—he concealed facts of regime violations and issued illegal incentives.
🔸In 2021, the deputy head of the colony and the head of the security department were detained Nikolai Borisevich. Also for bribes—but from a subordinate. According to investigators, he took money from the employee for a year and a half, turning a blind eye to his constant absences from work.
🔸In 2020, a Volgograd resident died in the penal colony. Sergey Agudov. A man dying from coronavirus was left without medical care, according to his lawyers.
🔸In 2022, a human rights activist Olga Romanova published information about poor conditions in the penal colony. According to the prisoner who contacted her, beaten prisoners were being transported to the penal colony. from Kherson, They were "locked into empty barracks," from which everything had been cleared out, leaving "only bunks, a table, and spoons." According to Romanova, civilians abducted in Ukraine are still being held in the colony.
🔸In February 2024, the news agency v102.ru wroteThe body of a prisoner preparing for release was discovered in a penal colony. According to the publication's source, the 38-year-old man committed suicide.
🔸The terrorists who took hostages today stated about the oppression of Muslims. "They killed those who oppressed, discriminated against, and tortured Muslims here. Some were robbed of their books and rugs, and some were shaved." — the prisoner says in the video.
🔸The regional Public Monitoring Commission conducted two inspections at Correctional Colony No. 19 in May and found no violations, the commission's chairman reported. Vadim Cherednik.
