Polar Owl

Coordinates	66°48′18″N 65°47′24″E / 66.805°N 65.79°E / 66.805; 65.79
Status	Operational
Capacity	1014
Population	450
Opened	1961
Managed by	Federal Penitentiary Service
Governor	lieutenant colonel Aleksandr Tsybulsky
City	Kharp
State/province	Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug
Country	Russia

Federal Governmental Institution — penal colony No. 18 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, commonly known as the Polar Owl (Russian: Полярная сова, Polyarnaya sova) is a Russian prison located on the bank of the Sob River near the Polar Urals in the Kharp urban-type settlement.^[1] It is one of the seven supermax ("special regimen", in Russian terminology) corrective labor colonies operated by the Federal Penitentiary Service for convicts sentenced to life imprisonment in Russia. In addition to special regimen it has sections with common and strict regimens.

History

Kharp was founded in 1961 during the construction of the Salekhard–Igarka Railway. The core of the new settlement was a camp for prisoners who worked on laying the railway. Subsequently, the camp was transformed into a prison for particularly dangerous recidivists. The prison received the status of a colony for life convicts in 2004.

In 2010–2012, there were reports in the media that some employees of the colony were involved in a scandal with the falsification of confession. Some unscrupulous guards were suspected of beating testimonies from prisoners with the use of physical and psychological violence. Novaya Gazeta reported 190 fake turnouts^{[clarification needed]}, while Izvestia reported 32 fake turnouts.^[2] According to Novaya Gazeta, the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug tried to hush up the case, since high-ranking officials could be involved in it.^[3]

Notable inmates

The Polar Owl facility has held numerous serial killers. It has also been used to hold political opponents of President Vladimir Putin.^{[citation needed]}

• Alexander Elistratov (born 1954) - made an unsuccessful escape attempt in 2011^[4]
• Alexander Greba (born 1980)^{[citation needed]}
• Yevgeny Kolesnikov (1984-2016) - killed himself at the colony^[5]
• Sergey Osipenko (born 1970)^{[citation needed]}
• Ivan Panchenko (born 1968)^{[citation needed]}
• Alexander Pichushkin (born 1974)^[6]
• Dmitry Voronenko (born 1971)^{[citation needed]}
• Mikhail Alexandrovich Yudin (born 1975)^{[citation needed]}
• Abdufatto Zamanov (born 1973)^{[citation needed]}
• Sergey Zastynchanu (born 1979)^{[citation needed]}
• Alexander Zhizhich (born 1979) - one half of a killing team with his brother^{[citation needed]}