Russia wants prisoners to clean the Arctic | Abroad

Alexandr Kalashnikov has instructed regional chiefs of his service to develop this plan. Agreements have already been made with the administration of Norilsk, an industrial city in northern Siberia that is heavily polluted by mining activities.

In that region, mining giant Norilsk Nicke suffered an ecological disaster last year as 21,000 tons of fuel leaked into rivers. The red color of the water was visible from space. The plan has been discussed before. An FSIN official then proposed building mobile buildings to house detainees in remote areas.

How prisoners are motivated to clean up is still unclear. Nothing is known about any reduction of their sentence or a higher salary than that given for work in penal colony.

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

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