Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Magnitsky death: Falling ill in a Russian jail

Jail Life

The ongoing dispute over the death in custody of Russian corporate lawyer Sergei Magnitsky has drawn attention to the Moscow remand prison where he was being held.

The gates of Butyrka, one of Russia’s oldest prisons, could well be in a museum. Made of oak and hand-wrought steel, they were installed when the prison was built 240 years ago.

Colonel Sergei Telyatnikov, the prison’s director, says it is time for the old gates to go, but he is fond of the metal.

“The original stuff,” he says. “When we do repairs to doors and grills we discover it’s much better than the modern steel.”