There are thousands of Muslims from the North Caucasus being held in the Russian penitentiary system who are, according to human rights activists, one of the most vulnerable and discriminated groups in the Russian prison population: they are more likely than others to be beaten or tortured, their right to freedom of religion is more likely to be violated, and it is more difficult for them to get parole.

This kind of attitude can be associated with ethnic and religious intolerance and the fact that many employees of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) are veterans of the armed conflict in the North Caucasus and remain suspicious if not outright hostile towards Caucasus natives.

After the emergence of the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS, or Daesh) which mobilized tens of thousands of people from almost 80 countries around the world, many countries have been confronted with the problem of the increased popularity of ultraradical ideologies in prisons. ISIS mobilized over 3,000 Russian nationals of various ethnic backgrounds, but since North Caucasus natives have traditionally constituted the majority of those sentenced under articles related to armed activity or terrorism in Russia, the FSIN has further increased its attention to this category of prisoners…