FKU'FKU' stands for Federal Governmental Institution ("federalnoye kazyonnoye uchrezhdeniye") and UFSIN is for Office of the Federal Penitentiary Service ("Управление федеральной службы исполнения наказаний"). Corrective Colony No. 2 of the FSIN of Russia for the Republic of Mordovia, or simply IK-2 Yavas, is a women's prison in Russia. It is located near

Yavas Yavas (russian: Явас; mdf, Яваз, ''Javaz'') is an urban locality (a work settlement) in the Zubovo-Polyansky District of the Republic of Mordovia, Russia. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 7,941. It is the location of wome ...

, about southeast of Moscow. WNBA player

Brittney Griner Brittney Yevette Griner (; born October 18, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist with the U.S. women's natio ...

was briefly incarcerated in the facility before being released in a December 2022 prisoner exchange for

Viktor Bout Viktor Anatolyevich Bout (; russian: link=no, Виктор Анатольевич Бут; born 13 January 1967) is a Russian arms dealer. A weapons manufacturer and former Soviet military translator, he used his multiple companies to smuggle a ...

Conditions

Prisons in Mordovia are regarded by many as having conditions harsher than most Russian prisons. According to

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

sociologist Olga Zeveleva, who works with the

Gulag Echoes The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the State Political Directorate, GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= ...

project studying Russian prison conditions, "Prisons in Mordovia are notoriously terrible, even by Russian standards. The prisons there are known for the harsh regimes and human rights violations." According to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', a popular saying among female prison inmates in Russia is "If you haven’t done time in Mordovia, you haven’t done time at all." The prison was built as a part of a system of similar prisons in the region in the 1930s during the Soviet era. University of Oxford scholar Judith Pallot described the prison as being "stuck in time for 50 years." Violence from other prisoners and prison guards is not as frequent as in men's prisons, but is not uncommon. Prisoners at IK-2 Mordovia and human rights organizations have lodged complaints about conditions. Former inmate Olga Shilayeva, who was released in 2017, described frequent beatings by Vyacheslav Kimyaev, then a senior official. Kimyaev was later placed in charge of the facility. He was replaced by Yelena Pozdnyakova after a 2021 investigation by Russian authorities. Because of its remote location, human rights organizations have little access for scrutinizing conditions.

Housing

Inmates are housed dormitory-style with 100 bunk beds in a large room. Personal belongings are not permitted. There is little supervision at night.

Schedule

Prisoners wake at 6 a.m. with group exercises, then operate sewing machines for 10-12 hours per day producing uniforms for military and prison service members.

Notable inmates

In November 2022

was transferred to IK-2 to serve a nine-year sentence for possession of medically prescribed vape cartridges containing less than 1 gram total of

hashish Hashish ( ar, حشيش, ()), also known as hash, "dry herb, hay" is a drug made by compressing and processing parts of the cannabis plant, typically focusing on flowering buds (female flowers) containing the most trichomes. European Monitorin ...

oil. The Guardian wrote that according to Pallot and other human rights experts, "it was no coincidence that the authorities had chosen to send Griner to IK-2." On December 8, 2022 the U.S. swapped Griner for convicted Russian arms dealer

Notes

References