Slave labour and criminal cultures

摘要

The women of Pussy Riot may not have sparked much of a debate on the virtues of feminism and radical art in Russia. But one of them, Nadezhda Tolokonni-kova, has prompted a wide-ranging examination of abuses in the country's prisons by publishing an open letter describing how prisoners are routinely overworked and kept in inhumane condition. This has set off a storm of indignation. Ms Tolokonnikova (pictured above) is serving her two-year sentence in a penal colony in Mordovia, a republic 500km (310 miles) south-east of Moscow. In their geography, architecture and internal organisation, today's prison colonies resemble the gulag archipelago. Throughout history, Russia's expansive territory and the decision to locate colonies far from urban centres has meant that a prison sentence was as much exile as imprisonment.