Kresty-2,The Five Star Jail of Russia

From the gulags to a 'five star jail': Inside Putin's £115million detention centre that is the largest in Europe with 4,000 inmates, a concert hall and even a museum

• By Will Stewart For Mailonline, www.dailymail.co.uk
• December 10th, 2015

This is the first glimpse inside the largest detention centre in Europe that is currently preparing to open on the outskirts of Vladimir Putin's home city of St Petersburg.

The giant jail will hold 4,000 inmates and replaces the notorious Kresty prison which housed political prisoners during the tsarist and Soviet eras.

Called Kresty-2, the new penitentiary, announced personally by Putin nine years ago, will accommodate both men and women - including those with young children - in separate facilities.

The new prison Photo by: pictured

The vast structure was built at a cost of £115million and is capable of holding 4,000 men and women inmates

The prison has been described as the 'cosiest' of all prisons in Russia and a 'five-star jail' due to its underfloor heating and other comforts

From the country that brought gulags to the world, this £115million factory-scale detention centre is described as a 'five star jail' and the 'cosiest' of all prisons in Russia.

It has heated floors designed for inmates' walks in special recreation zones atop the jail's gargantuan towers, while it is also the first prison in Russia to deploy travelators to traverse its endless corridors.

Prison chiefs boast that it is 'impossible to escape' from Kresty-2, a claim that will be tested when the first inmates arrive here in the St Petersburg suburb of Kolpino in the coming weeks.

Instead of the traditional Soviet-era image of watchtowers and visible armed guards, it deploys a battery of anti-escape electronic sensors in walls and floors.

Inmates will be offered 'in-cell' dining, with airline economy class-style food passed through a door hatch.

Occupying a 35 hectare site, its main function is as a detention centre for people awaiting trial, and it is to get a dedicated railway station. Among its facilities are a 'fighting room' and saunas - but the shooting range will only be for the use of the institution's 1,500 staff.

It will have an Orthodox church, a hospital, concert hall and even a museum.

The facility will have two classes of inmates, with between 250 and 400 of the 4,000 allowed privileges for working as 'housekeepers' and qualifying for better accommodation in separate 'dormitories'.

The facility will have two classes of inmates, with up to 400 of the 4,000 total prisoners allowed privileges for working jobs

The country's prison service bosses say the jail will be the most modern in Europe and is designed to fit with 'European standards'

The massive project was announced nine years ago after a review of its predecessor, Kresty, found the jail to be vastly overpopulated

All detainees will have a choice of wearing a uniform or their own clothes.

For those not happy with the most modern jail in Russia, there will be punishment sweat boxes for 216 inmates, and also single cells for the most dangerous detainees.

'It will be the most modern prison in Russia and the biggest in Europe,' said Gennady Kornienko, head of Russia's prison service. 'Every inmate will be allocated seven square metres which fits "European standards",' he said.

The first inmates will arrive in the new year, but by the time the detention centre is fully functioning another £43million will be added to the cost.

Europe's current largest prison is believed to be France's Fleury-Merogis Prison on the outskirts of Paris which can hold some 3,800 detainees.

The new Russian facility is also a court house and police station. It will have four functioning courts and 150 rooms for investigators to interrogate those held on remand, and detainees to consult their lawyers.

Among those jailed in the old red brick Kresty - which maybe redeveloped as a luxury hotel after the site is auctioned - were revolutionary Leon Trotsky as well as members of the provisional government, which was toppled by Lenin in the Bolshevik Revolution.

Pictured is a typical dormitory cell in one of the prison blocks, where certain prisoners will be allowed to share a relatively spacious room

Those who live in the dormitories Photo by: pictured

Pictured is a typical shower block inside the brand new prison. Remarkably, the facility also includes a museum and concert hall

The prison has been constructed to replace Kresty, a grim prison currently holding 1,150 inmates which dates back to the 1730s

By the mid 1990s, the original Kresty held more than 12,500 inmates - more than ten times its capacity. Pictured is the bathroom of its replacement, on the outskirts of St PetersburgAdd caption

Prison chiefs boast that it is 'impossible to escape' from Kresty-2 Photo by: pictured

This grim prison, currently holding 1,150 inmates to be transferred to the new facility, dates back to the 1730s but was redeveloped in the reign of Tsar Alexander III by Anthony Tomishko, whose ghost is said to still haunt it.

In the first revolution of 1917, the jail was stormed in an attempt to emulate the 'Storming of the Bastille' from the French Revolution.

By the mid 1990s, it held more than 12,500 inmates - more than ten times its capacity.

Vladimir Lukin, Russia's former human rights ombudsman, found during a visit to Kresty in 2008 'that the prison hospital was grossly inadequate and that prisoners in significant numbers had cut their arms with razor blades in protest at their conditions,' according to leaked U.S. Embassy cables hosted by WikiLeaks.

Russia has the third highest prison population in the world, after the U.S. and China.