Paul Goble
Staunton, May 16 – Since Putin launched his expanded war in Ukraine, the number of Russians behind bars has fallen by approximately 40 percent, at least in part because prisoners are being released to fight in Ukraine; but over the same period, spending on the Russian prison system has risen by 40 percent.
That conclusion is offered by the Vyorstka news portal which had access to draft legislation on government spending and compared it to reports of the decline of the number of prisoners (t.me/svobodnieslova/8915 and nemoskva.net/2026/05/16/raskhody-fsin-vyrosli-zaklyuchennykh-menshe/).
Russian prison officials say that the increased spending reflects efforts directed toward “the humanization” of jails and camps, but Olga Romanova, head of the Russia Behind Bars Foundaiton says that in fact the rise in spending itself is a product of changes since the war in Ukraine began.
First of all, she tells the NeMoskva portal that “costs have risen due to capital construction.” Despite the reduction in the number of prisoners now, the Russian government is “building a lot of prisons and large ones at that,” an indication that the Kremlin may plan to imprison more people once the war is over.
Another source of rising costs connected with Ukraine has arisen, Romanova continues, because “Russian authorities are taking over and utilizing existing prisons within the occupied territories. This entails relocating staff and covering their travel and per diem expenses to avoid hiring local personnel, as they suspect them of having ties to Ukraine.”
What this all means, of course, is that reducing the number of convicts serving time in prisons and camps has not given the Russian government additional money to spend on the war. Instead, the war has meant that even with the cuts in the number of those behind bars, the Russian prison system is now spending far more than it did when it was far larger.
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