Anti-Corruption Foundation: Navalny’s penal colony pays double market prices for cabbage and onions

IK-6, the penal colony where the opposition politician Alexey Navalny is serving his sentence in Russia’s Vladimir region, is paying double the market prices, or even higher, for the food staples it purchases from wholesale vendors. This is the subject of a new investigation published by Navalny’s associates at Anti-Corruption Foundation.

ACF reports that, in 2022, the colony paid 27.5 rubles per kilogram of cabbage when the market price was only six rubles. Similarly, it paid 29.5 rubles per kilogram of onions, instead of the market price of 13 rubles. Higher-than-market prices were also paid for fish and dried potatoes.

The vendors involved in the profiteering scheme have contracts with other penal institutions as well, both in the Vladimir region and in other parts of Russia. Given the scale of their business supplying the Russian penal system, it’s likely that the vendors are selected by senior officials in Moscow. The latter are likely the scheme’s main beneficiaries, explains ACF investigator Sergey Yezhov.