Anarchist Azat Miftakhov, convicted in a case on the “justification of terrorism,” says he was tortured after being transferred to Penal Colony No. 18, Polar Owl, in the Yamalo-Nenets region. The political prisoner reported this himself.
According to Miftakhov, on April 21 he was taken to the colony’s administrative building and ordered to clean a toilet. After he refused, he says, he was tied up with tape and beaten on the heels with a wooden mallet. He also reported blows to the groin, face, and head, as well as threats of rape and of having his face pushed into a sewage hatch.
He says he was then taken to the second floor of the same building, wires were attached to his toes, and electric current was applied. Miftakhov said prison service staff and inmates turned music up to full volume to drown out his screams. According to him, each refusal to comply with the administration’s demands was followed by more electric torture.
The political prisoner named the people he believes were involved. He identified them as colony staff members Mikhail Sobolev and Aleksei Viktorovich, operatives Pavel Kiselev and Yevgeny, and inmates Bulanov and Mikhail.
Miftakhov has now reportedly been placed in a punishment cell. The exact reason was not specified. His relatives are asking for this information to be publicized.
In 2021, Miftakhov was sentenced to six years in a general-regime colony in a hooliganism case: investigators said that in 2018 he broke a window at a United Russia office in Moscow. During the investigation, he said, security officers also tortured him with electric shocks and threatened sexualized violence; at that time he attempted suicide.
In September 2023, the anarchist was released from prison but detained immediately upon leaving. He was later charged in a new case on the “justification of terrorism”: investigators alleged that while watching television with other inmates he approved the actions of Mikhail Zhlobitsky, who carried out an explosion at the Arkhangelsk FSB building. Miftakhov denied guilt. In March 2024, he was sentenced to four years in prison, and in April 2026 it became known that he had been transferred to IK-18 in the settlement of Kharp, where IK-3 is also located, the colony in which Alexei Navalny died.