Kommersant: Federal Penitentiary Service offered Rostec to use the labor of convicts

The Federal Penitentiary Service offered the state corporation Rostec to hire convicts. About it informs Kommersant, citing sources.

According to the newspaper, the director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Arkady Gostev, in a letter to the head of Rostec, Sergey Chemezov, suggested involving convicts in the manufacture and supply of products for the needs of the state corporation for the development, production and export of industrial products. It is specified that Rostec sent the document to its enterprises for consideration.

The Federal Penitentiary Service and the state corporation did not respond to requests from the publication. A Kommersant source claims that the issue of possible cooperation is now being “worked out in many areas at once.”

The interlocutor specified that convicts cannot be involved in the assembly of rockets or aircraft. He did not specify which enterprises he was talking about, but added that cooperation between Rostec and the Federal Penitentiary Service is possible in types of work that do not require high qualifications. Also, correctional facilities can supply overalls, “other types of simple products” and help in the construction of facilities, the source added.

The interlocutor of the newspaper in the aviation industry admitted that, in theory, prisoners with a secondary technical education could be in demand “in simple working specialties, which are sorely lacking in every enterprise.” Another industry source questioned the initiative’s feasibility, stating that “aviation is the highest responsibility.”

An interlocutor in the telecommunications equipment market also believes that prisoners will not be allowed to develop electronics and components for security reasons. Another source added that, theoretically, convicts could produce “component parts of equipment,” including circuit boards, electronic components, etc.

KamAZ and AvtoVAZ did not comment on the initiative. However, a source in another automaker said that such a scenario is realistic, but only if the prisoners are trained.

In 2017 at Rostec reported on the development of an agreement with the Federal Penitentiary Service, according to which the state corporation intends to use the labor of convicts. Then the company noted that “it is premature to talk about its parameters.” Rostec added that if it is signed, the prisoners will not be involved in the production of military equipment and weapons.

In November, it became known that Uralvagonzavod (part of the state corporation) arrange to work 250 convicts. The Federal Penitentiary Service clarified that they will work in working specialties: an operator of machine tools with program control, a turner, a milling machine operator, an electric welder, a crane operator, etc.