Paul Goble
Staunton, Feb. 14 – The Russian authorities have started the construction of what will be that country’s largest preliminary detention center. Planned to hold 4,000 inmates awaiting trial or sentencing, the facility is located 71 kilometers from the center of the capital, far from public transport.
That will give the Kremlin the opportunity to detain more Russians not yet tried or sentenced without the risk of protests and to deprive them of their ability to defend themselves by making it difficult for defense lawyers to reach them on a regular basis (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/02/14/za-71-i-kilometr).
This new super-sized detention center near the Russian capital follows the building of an equally large one just outside of St. Petersburg and is part of a plan, announced in 2024 to build such facilities across the country to replace smaller detention facilities that has long been in use (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/08/moscow-closing-prison-camps-but-it-is.html).
Conditions in Russian detention centers, where those arrested are often kept for extended periods, are notoriously bad, far worse than in many prisons and prison camps. They are understaffed and under-serviced, with lawyers often forced to wait for many hours to meet with their clients.
This is yet another example of the way in which the Putin regime under cover of declarations about modernization of the Russian prison system is not only enriching its friends and giving it more scope for repression but ensuring that arrests and not just convictions are likely to become more widespread, yet another way Russia is becoming ever more authoritarian.
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