February 16, 2022

The gruesome torture of Russian political prisoners

topic:	Political violence
located:	Russia
editor:	Andrew Getto

Editor's note: this article contains graphic imagery of torture and abuse.

In the past year, torture has been the single most important topic in Russian media. Most people have already known that the authorities often physically abuse people, but it is always personal accounts that turn an abstract, distant evil into a palpable reality. A recently released book by one of Russia’s most famous political prisoners sheds light on the ancient practise of torture still alive in 21st century Russia.

In 2017 and 2018, the state security agency FSB arrested a total of 10 young men and accused them of forming a radical leftist terrorist group called “Network”. Many of the arrested victims hardly knew each other and were linked only by their interest in anarchy and airsoft guns. Airsoft instructor Dmitry Pchelintsev, now 27, was named the leader of the alleged terrorist group and sentenced to 18 years behind bars. Half of those arrested revealed that they only confessed to being terrorists due to the torture they endured.

Pchelintsev revealed the most about the occurrence and wrote a book about his experience, which has just been released. It is a unique and very detailed account of the savagery taking place under the veil of Russian institutions. Pchelintsev experienced torture on his first day behind bars: seven FSB agents undressed him and tied him with scotch tape, then connected wires of a Cold War-era field telephone to his toes. The following is his account from the book.

“The answers 'no,' 'I don’t know,' 'I don’t recall' are wrong. Do you understand?” one of the officers asked him before turning on the electricity.

“I only managed to stop screaming after three or four charges. A gag had dried my mouth completely. Automatically, my jaws were clinging to it so strongly that the edges of my teeth chipped,” Pchelintsev recalls.

The not-so-subtle technique worked, and the accused was sentenced to between 6 to 18 years of prison. A few years have passed, during which Russians have gone from being appalled by obviously fake confessions extracted by torture to accepting them as an everyday reality. It has become just another textbook truth: Russia is the largest country in the world, there is a Kremlin in the centre of Moscow, and Russian authorities torture innocent youths to make them confess to terrorism.

The “Network” case was, of course, just the beginning. The FSB has since expanded its witch hunt for presumable terrorists: several teens from Kansk, Siberia have just been found guilty of terrorism for wanting to blow up the FSB headquarters in a video game, Minecraft, and allegedly experimenting with homemade explosives. Many other youngsters between the ages of 14 to 16 have been thrown in jail or psychiatric wards for related offences.

Naturally, officers on the ground who torture 20-year-olds all believe the depravity they sow will never touch their families. Much like in the times of Stalin, they believe they are people of a different sort - the statesmen, who can do anything they want and never face any consequences.

But, as history tells us, the flywheel of torture and oppression is easy to launch and hard to stop. They should think one step ahead and realise that they or their children may well end up as victims themselves - tied to a radiator with duct tape, looking at phone wires, confessing to be Japanese spies.

Photo by Emiliano Bar

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