Russia, whose defense and security agencies are heavily focused on its war in Ukraine, has seen a recent upsurge in Islamist militant attacks.

Four knife-wielding prisoners claiming to be Islamic State group militants launched a deadly attack in a penal colony in southern Russia on Friday before being killed and their hostages released, officials said.

The attack left four people dead, while the four hostage-taking prisoners were “neutralized” by snipers, Russian officials said.

The attackers initially seized eight penal colony employees and four fellow inmates, according to Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Ser

  • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    What were the conditions in the prison? What were the prisoner’s demands?

    At least in the historical cases I’m aware of, when prisoners take hostages, they have demands related to their conditions. And gunning down those prisoners and their hostages while pretending they just decided to murder people for no reason after taking hostage is not an atypical response.

    From what I’ve heard, some Russian prisons are just as bad as American prisons, locking people in solitary for months to years at a time or in large rooms full of small cages.

    • lemmylommy@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Just as bad? I would rather spend my life in American Supermax than stay five years in a Russian penal colony.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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        2 months ago

        This person desperately wants to talk about the U.S. to the point that they’re accusing me of whataboutism by talking about Russia in a thread about Russia.

        • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          I’m more familiar with prisoner abuse and prison riots in America than Russia, I don’t have much else to compare it to.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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            2 months ago

            This is what you said above:

            From what I’ve heard, some Russian prisons are just as bad as American prisons, locking people in solitary for months to years at a time or in large rooms full of small cages.

            If you’re more familiar with American prisons, then maybe what you have heard is not good enough and you should be equally familiar with both before making such statements.

            Russian prisons are far worse just going by per capita deaths.

            Read first, then comment.

            • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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              2 months ago

              Russian prisons are far worse just going by per capita deaths.

              Presumably, we are both working off non-academic, English-language sources targeting western audiences about Russian prisons. We don’t have credible numbers here.

              Hell we don’t even have credible numbers on American prisons given how they’re able to cook the books by moving people out of the prison before they’re declared dead or simply not reporting deaths to the Bureau Of Justice.

                • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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                  2 months ago

                  Because if you knew what you were talking about, you’d be citing specific examples or academic works, and if you read Russian, you’d have primary sources.

            • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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              2 months ago

              I’m certain you’re not familiar enough with Russian prisons either given that you apply zero criticism to western sources about their enemies and cannot read Russian to interact with primary sources.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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                2 months ago

                Why are you certain of this? Please give evidence to back up this certainty. You claimed you weren’t familiar enough with them. Is this some projection?

                • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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                  2 months ago

                  Please give evidence to back up this certainty

                  Here, lets test this, name something that is still widely reported by western sources about Iran, China, Cuba, Russia, or North Korea that serves the purpose of promoting hostile actions, that you know to be false. This should be trivial if you apply a little bit of critical thinking.

                  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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                    2 months ago

                    Why should I test your certainty if you’re already certain?

                    Were you lying when you said you were certain? Otherwise, you should be able to produce the evidence that made you certainty.

      • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        People spend years in metal boxes without seeing another human, what we do to our prisoners literally causes PTSD and would be a war crime if done to POWs.

        And that’s the system acting entirely within the law as prescribed. There’s even more horrific cases of what guards regularly do to inmates on their own initiative.

        • lemmylommy@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Yes, it’s bad. But you get all of that and then some in Russian penal colonies.

          • Plopp@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            But that “and then some” could be video games and snacks, you don’t know! /s

    • Hubi@feddit.org
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      2 months ago

      You have zero idea how bad Russian prisons actually are. Beatings, starvations and rape are considered normal in many places. There’s a reason many convicts would rather get sent to war. I’d spent the next 10 years in an American prison before even one year in a Russian one.

    • nonailsleft@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      What were the prisoner’s demands?

      What I’ve read: automatic weapons and a helicopter

      Also: their religion to rule over the world