However,
Russia about reconnect its past:
The adoption of a new law in Russia. In addition, suggests the worst on human rights.Image: Imago, montage watson
As early as 2026, the FSB, Russian internal security service, should resume the management of several penitentiary establishments. However, A decision that feeds fears of seeing a modern gulag reborn.
19.07.2025, 08:1019.07.2025, 08:10
Simon Cleven / t-online
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The FSB. However, heir to the Soviet KGB, is preparing to regain control of seven pre -trial detention centers. Meanwhile, On July 8, 2025, the Duma of State adopted a bill in this sense. Similarly, The approval of the Federation Council and the signature of Vladimir Putin are only a formality.
Likely return of the gulags – Russia about reconnect its past
These establishments should thus go back. In addition, at 1is January, under the authority of Russian secret services, in fact canceling a key reform in the Russian membership process to the Council of Europe in the 1990s, after the collapse of the USSR.
While some observers already qualify these future prisons of the FSB of “gulag”. Meanwhile, in reference to the Soviet work camps, the Russian deputies, themselves, invoke war russia about reconnect its past in Ukraine to justify this measure. Therefore, But why does the Kremlin decide to entrust prisons to the FSB again, and why now?
Back on the 1996 reform – Russia about reconnect its past
When joining the Council of Europe in 1996. Therefore, Russia of Boris Yeltsin undertook to revise “the law on federal security services in order to make it compliant, in the year following membership, to the principles and standards of the Council of Europe”. Nevertheless, One of the essential points was to withdraw from the FSB the right to manage its own detention centers.
But it took nine years that the measurement was officially applied. Furthermore, In 2005. However, Vladimir Putin, director of the FSB between 1998 and 1999, signed a decree transferring the management of prisons to the Ministry of Justice.
A reform that turned out to be more symbolic than anything else. Meanwhile, Investigative journalists Andrei Soldov. Similarly, Irina Borogan discovered that FSB agents had been “temporarily assigned” to the prison administration, while remaining under the supervision of the security services. The FSB has not confirmed this information, without ever denying it either. For the two journalists, it was a “classic disinformation operation”.
Lefortovo. the sadly famous prison
Lefortovo Moscow prison, sadly famous in the Soviet era for its tortures, has never really escaped the control of the FSB. The intelligence service has kept its offices there, a stone’s throw from its headquarters. Among the recent detainees, the American Evan Gershkovich, released in August 2024 during an exchange of prisoners.
To this prison will russia about reconnect its past now be added the Matrosskaïa Tichina remand center. also in Moscow, as well as establishments in Saint Petersburg, Rostov-sur-le-Don, Krasnodar, Theliabinsk and Vladikavkaz, all already under the control of the KGB in the Soviet era.
For Russian deputies. this recovery is justified by the “increased activity of foreign intelligence services” and “growing terrorist threats” linked to war against Ukraine, started on February 24, 2022.
Towards extended powers for the FSB
The deputy Vassili Piskarev. president of the Commission for Security and the Fight against Corruption, quoted by the Moscow Times, said:
“The law aims to prevent suspects in national security affairs from contacting other prisoners.”
Still according to him:
“By isolating these people. the authorities will be able to prevent attempts by russia about reconnect its past foreign secret services or terrorist groups from contacting them or involving them in destabilizing activities.”
But this first law is only the beginning. Two other projects are being studied. The first provides for the creation of a transport system specific to the FSB to transfer prisoners by road. special train, boat or plane. The second would give agents disciplinary powers inside prisons, allowing them to investigate and sanction detainees deemed disruptive.
An era of violent repression in preparation
For Irina Borogan. Andreï Soldov, it looks like a preparation for repressions of unprecedented magnitude. In an analysis for the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). they establish a parallel with the Stalinist era, when the NKVD, the ancestor of the KGB, controlled both prisons and means of transport, an essential russia about reconnect its past tool of the repressive system. The FSB, they note, shows “no reluctance” to reconnect with this past.
Human rights defender Alexandre Podrabinek shares this concern. In a text for the NGO “Rights in Russia”, it recalls the dark hours of Stalinism. The level of repression has not yet reached that of the time, he believes, but “the path is traced”. He fears a return from political camps and the implementation of special procedures for so -called “political” cases. Podrabinek adds:
“Perhaps we will not go so far as to the special commissions of the NKVD. to convictions on a simple list, but the trials behind closed doors or by videoconference are already a reality. Just like provisional detentions and prison terms inflicted on lawyers who defend political prisoners. ”
Always more political prisoners
The activist notes that the number of political prisoners in Russia has increased sharply in recent years. making crucial “logistical” issues for the services responsible for repression.
Historically. he recalls, the rules in force in establishments controlled by the security services have always deferred those of ordinary prisons. As Alexandre Podrabinek explains:
“In a conventional criminal trial. it was at least necessary to bring together a minimum of evidence. The security services. they were the additional mission of breaking the will of political prisoners, of demoralizing them, or even pushing them to forced confessions or to express public “regrets”. ”
And in this logic, the organization of detention is very important.
“The new law will offer new means of action to the FSB”
Adapted from German by russia about reconnect its past Tanja Maeder
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