November 11th, 10 years ago

Russia’s penitentiary system is essentially the Gulag preserved almost untouched. Torture camps. And, importantly, it is pointless — it does not achieve its main goal, rehabilitation. There, criminals are turned into even worse criminals, while innocent people like Dadin are simply tortured because “that’s how it’s done.” It needs to be dismantled completely and rebuilt from scratch as a normal system. It is beyond reform.

Alexei Navalny