Russia wants prisoners to clean up the Arctic | Abroad

Alexandr Kalashnikov instructed the regional heads of his department to draw up this plan. Agreements have already been made with the administration of Norilsk, an industrial city in northern Siberia heavily polluted by mining activities.

In this region, mining giant Norilsk Nicke suffered an environmental disaster last year, as 21,000 tonnes of fuel spilled into rivers. The red color that the water took on was visible from space. The plan has already been discussed. An FSIN official then proposed to construct mobile buildings to house detainees in remote areas.

The motivation of prisoners to clean is still unclear. Nothing is known about a reduced sentence or a higher salary than that granted for work in a penal colony.

The plans are reminiscent of the Gulag, the government agency that in Stalinist times put convicts to work on huge projects, like the construction of the White Sea Canal in the 1930s.