May 30, 2023

Crimean Hostages


Crimean Hostages
A penitential center in Moscow.  Senate of Russian Federation, Flickr.

Meduza journalists discovered a secret jail in Crimea where Ukrainian civilians are being held. The center, at Simferopol’s pre-trial detention center, is controlled by the Russian FSB.

According to Meduza, Ukrainian prisoners are separated from the rest of the prison population, and their presence in the pre-trial detention center is carefully hidden: only specially admitted persons have access to the closed institution. Ukrainians who managed to escape from the secret prison have said they were brutally abused: guards strangled, beat, and tortured them with electricity.

Among the jail's prisoners are political activists, volunteers, and people who participated in anti-Russian rallies in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Most of the prisoners do not have any legal status. Some of them are being prosecuted, including on charges of terrorism or attempting to commit a terrorist act. In most cases, prisoners cannot contact the outside world, and their detention in the prison is known only after their release.

Meduza reports that there are similar secret prisons in other regions of Russia. They are controlled not by the FSB, but by the Military Police Department of the Ministry of Defense. At the same time, the exact number of detained Ukrainian civilians can only be estimated.

According to the Verkhovna Rada's Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmitry Lubinets, the Russian Federation is illegally detaining about 20,000 Ukrainians.

Ukrainian authorities and various NGO organizations, such as the Every Human Being Project, are looking for Ukrainian civilians detained in Russia or in the occupied territories. From time to time Ukrainian authorities are able to free them.

International law prohibits the imprisonment of civilians not serviing in the armed forces.

 

 

You Might Also Like

Dance Floor Dissent
  • May 26, 2023

Dance Floor Dissent

A video of people singing pro-Ukraine lyrics prompted government intervention.
Screws are Tightening
  • April 12, 2023

Screws are Tightening

March has seen a serious tightening of the screws of repression by the Russian regime.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
A Taste of Russia

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955