Former Yukos executive: Kohver safer in stricter but less unruly federal prison
Vladimir Pereverzin, a former senior manager of the Russian oil company Yukos, who also spent time in the notorious Lefortovo prison in Moscow, said captured Estonian ISS official is better off there as conditions usually depend greatly on prison chiefs.
Pereverzin, who spent seven years in jail on what he says were trumped up and political charges, told Postimees in an interview that prisoners can share jail cells with murderers and maniacs or white-collar criminals, but the conditions in Lefortovo are the best as they only have two to a cell, which are constantly monitored, and the food is the best.
He said the rules are more rigid, for example a prisoner can not pull a quilt over his head, and the lights are always on, although dimmer during the night, but the prison is far safer.
Pereverzin told the Financial Times that in general populartion at a penal colony, on the other hand, he had to march for two hours three times each day, the food was barely edible and barracks were overcrowded. He said he even attempted self-harm to earn a transfer to the prison hospital.
Kohver was remanded to Lefortovo after his capture, believed to have taken place on the Estonian side of the border, in September.