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Thousands of Russians have watched in horror at the leak of a series of videos and photos that show the torture of prisoners in various prisons in the country. The leaks were published by the NGO Gulagu-net, which claims to have

more than 40 gigabytes of videos, documents and photos

that prove the abuses. The Kremlin is investigating and the first resignation has already taken place.

The videos show inmates being beaten and tortured by guards in various prisons across the country. They were recorded in the Irkutsk, Saratov and Vladimir regions and contain very harsh scenes. Some show several people using a large object to

anally rape

a naked man who is tied to a bed. Human rights groups have for years criticized the "systematic" torture of Russian prisoners.

According to Gulagu-net, these recordings were made by a prisoner with training as a programmer who for five years had access to the computers of the Saratov prison where he was serving his sentence and who has already been released and left Russia to move to a country that has not yet moved. unveiled to ensure your safety. The website of the entity that has made the leak is currently inaccessible since May 25 of this year. It was

blocked by

Russia's

state

media

regulatory body

Roskomnadzor following requests from the security service FSB (successor to the KGB) and the Russian Prison Service (FSIN). The website had been created in 2011 to protect the rights of prisoners.

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office on Tuesday began an investigation in several prisons in the Russian region of Saratov, in the southern European part of Russia. Hours after the scandal, the head of the department of prisons in the Saratov region, Colonel Alexei Fedotov, submitted his resignation, the newspaper 'Novaya Gazeta' reported. Fedotov, 55, had run the Saratov Federal Prison Service since February 2020, and prior to that he worked in the Karelian prison system.

"Fedotov wrote a letter of resignation. He is currently on vacation, from which he may not return to work,

" a source told Interfax news agency.

The Mediazona portal - recently declared by the Russian authorities a "foreign agent" - claimed to have in its possession three videos provided by the Gulagu-net website that would show scenes of torture of prisoners, recorded in the Saratov penal institution between February and June of 2020. The copies of the videos are safe outside the country.

Several were apparently recorded in the prison hospital.

Thousands of complaints

Russia, along with Turkey, is among the countries with the

highest proportion of incarcerated people

in Europe, according to a recent report by the Council of Europe. According to the ombudsman, Tatiana Moskalkova, her office annually receives thousands of complaints from prisoners of abuse, overcrowding and inadequate medical treatment, reports Efe. "If these materials were shown to be true, that would be cause for a thorough investigation," Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov admitted hours before Feodtov's resignation.

Gulagu-net founder Vladimir Osechkin called the leak of torture into Russian prisons

"the most scandalous failure of the Russian intelligence services."

Osechkin himself left Russia in 2015 and currently resides in France.

"In order to verify the reliability of the information, a group of officials was sent to the Saratov Region by the director of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia," the press office of the prison service reported on Tuesday.

"The problem of torture in Russian prisons is very serious and

the government is not doing enough to ensure an effective investigation,

the safety of victims and complainants, and the accountability of perpetrators," said Tanya Lokshina, Director. Attachment for Europe and Central Asia to Human Rights Watch, in statements released by 'The Moscow Times'.

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