MOSCOW. Oct 8 (Interfax) - Vyacheslav Volodin, who was the speaker of the previous State Duma, has said he is looking into the situation surrounding an incident that happened at a Saratov hospital.
"I am keeping this issue under control, I am examining this situation, how this became possible and went unreported by the region's civil society institutions and human rights commissioner," Volodin told journalists on Thursday, commenting on the situation surrounding criminal cases at a hospital in the Saratov region.
Regional investigators have launched seven criminal inquiries into torture and sexual abuse at Regional Tuberculosis Hospital No.1, including prison staff exceeding their authority and using violence, the press service for the authorities told Interfax on Wednesday.
Vladimir Osechkin, founder of the Gulagu.net human rights project, said earlier on the Ekho Moskvy radio station that the project acquired and took outside of Russia over 1,000 Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) videos that confirm systemic torture in Russian penitentiaries and detention facilities in the Irkutsk, Saratov, and Vladimir regions. These include materials showing alleged torture at FSIN Regional Tuberculosis Hospital No. 1 in the Saratov region.
FSIN, in turn, said that an internal inquiry has been launched into this information.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that a thorough probe would be necessary if the reports of torture at a prison infirmary in the Saratov region prove true.