Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service offers defense conglomerate Rostec the use of prisoner labor

Arkady Gostev, the director of Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service, sent a letter to Sergey Chemezov, head of state-owned defense conglomerate Rostec, reports newspaper Kommersant. In it, Gostev invites the state corporation to use prisoners’ labor for developing, producing, and exporting industrial products.

According to Kommersant, Gostev sent the letter in January. Rostec reportedly passed the letter on for the enterprises that make up the corporation to consider.

A Kommersant source within Rostec said that “possibilities for cooperation are being explored from many angles at once.” He clarified that a prison “labor force cannot be involved directly in assembling missiles or airplanes,” but that such “collaboration” would be possibly for jobs not requiring advanced qualifications.