On 14 June this year, a Russian governmental website that publishes drafts of regulatory legal acts published a draft of retributive amendments to the laws on the penal enforcement system. According to the draft, the employees of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) are given extended powers in terms of censoring the correspondence addressed to the convicts of penitentiary institutions, as well as using of force against them.

The tightening of the penitentiary system is primarily aimed at total isolation of Russian political prisoners from the outside world. Today, there are already tens of thousand political prisoners in Russia.

In order to ensure that members of the Russian parliament voted unanimously in favour of the punitive amendments to the law, on 16 June the Putin regime staged – yet again! – a theatrical performance with “terrorists” taking “hostages” – this time inside a detention facility in the city of Rostov.

According to reports provided by the Russian media, on16 June, in the morning, six defendants, including several convicted on terrorism charges, broke the window bars of their cell in the Rostov detention centre, broke into the duty station and took two staff members hostage.

By noon of the same day, the The Federal Penitentiary Service reported that all the criminals had been killed as a result of a commando operation; the officers taken hostages had been released.

Breaking window bars from inside the cell of a pre-trial detention centre is a next to impossible task, while getting the officers of the duty station hostage would require passing through a number of security check-points. Hence, the escape was most likely staged, some people merely played the roles of “terrorists” and “hostages” on that day. Once the event received the required media publicity, the “terrorists” (witnesses) were simply disposed of.

To achieve its goals, Putin’s regime, once again, has made a fail-safe tactical move, by playing the card of Islamic terrorism.