Russian President Vladimir Putin conferred the rank of major general of the internal service on Anton Efarkin, acting head of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Saratov Region. This is stated in the  presidential decree signed on February 17. The Novaya Gazeta drew attention to this .

Efarkin has been heading the Saratov Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service since October 2021. He became the interim head of the department after the human rights project  Gulagu.net  published several videos with scenes of sexual violence and torture in OTB-1, Saratov TB Hospital No. 1.

Prior to his appointment, Efarkin worked as the first deputy head of the main operational department of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, and even earlier – the head of the operational department of the department of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

The Gulagu.net project linked Efarkin to torture in Krasnoyarsk, in SIZO-1 and KTB-1 (regional tuberculosis hospital). Also, human rights activists claimed that during the work of the deputy head of the operational department of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Efarkin was involved in torture in the Saratov OTB-1.

Novaya also published evidence of Efarkin’s involvement in torture. For example, a prisoner of IK-27 (in Krasnoyarsk) Mikhail Golikov, who was beaten by employees of the local operational department, said that Efarkin was a member of a certain group that was behind torture in the colonies.

(C)MEDUZA 2022