Saxophonist Andrei Shabanov, transferred to a unit with even harsher conditions where ‘only prisoners with disabilities are held’, continues to face discrimination after being labelled ‘obizhenny’
Political prisoner Andrei Shabanov is being transferred to another unit, ‘where only prisoners with disabilities are held’, he told his mother in a telephone call on 25 August. He said conditions there would be even worse than in his current unit.
‘Dear followers, I’m asking you all once again: please keep up the pressure by sending complaints to every possible authority, because nothing is changing, everything just keeps getting worse. I’m being moved to another unit now, and conditions there will be worse than they are here. And here, I’ve already been placed among the ‘obizhenny’, so I don’t know what will happen next. I know there are replies claiming that nothing is happening here, that’s absolute rubbish. There’s a hierarchical system here that’s maintained by the prison staff themselves. This shouldn’t be allowed to happen. I can’t eat properly, I can’t live properly’ — an audio recording of Andrei Shabanov’s public appeal was published on his support group’s channel.
On 24 August, the political prisoner’s mother, Olga Medvedeva, said the situation in the colony remained unchanged. Andrei Shabanov is not allowed to use the shared refrigerator and has nowhere to store food, meaning she cannot send him food parcels. The colony’s management will not allow the family to purchase a separate refrigerator for him at their own expense.
The political prisoner has not been receiving his letters, during his entire time in the colony he has received only one postcard. A note from an orthopaedic surgeon recommending that he be given a bed board and an orthopaedic mattress has also ‘disappeared’.
Andrei Shabanov arrived at Penal Colony No. 10 in the settlement of Volzhsky, Samara Oblast, in April. In June he began having conflicts with other prisoners after listening to the radio in the ‘obizhenny’ area and, in keeping with the traditions of the prison subculture, being being deemed ‘obizhenny’ — the lowest, most stigmatised caste in Russia’s informal prison hierarchy — a status imposed under prison subculture rules. ‘I’ve been banned from using the kitchen, my bunk’s been taken away, now I sleep… well, not on a bunk, basically. Some prisoners verbally abuse me, and several times I’ve heard threats made against me,’ he said.
On 25 June, Andrei Shabanov was sent to a punishment cell for five days. On 4 July, after he had been returned to his unit, he reported being attacked by another inmate, Andrei Kryslov: according to Shabanov, Kryslov poured hot tea over him and hit him over the head with a stool. According to Mediazona, the attacker is a former Russian serviceman who was convicted in Chechnya in 2024 for failing to obey an order.
Since the end of June, his support group has been running a campaign sending complaints to various authorities. Olga Medvedeva now believes this has had no effect.
Samara saxophonist Andrei Shabanov was sentenced to six years in a general-regime penal colony for public justification and propaganda of terrorism (Article 205.2(2) of the Russian Criminal Code) and public calls for activities directed against state security (Article 280.4(2)(c)). The charges appear to stem from a post that read: ‘There are only three ways to genuinely resist Putin (from the simplest to the most complex): donating to the Armed Forces of Ukraine; partisan activity and sabotage within Russia; service with the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), the Freedom of Russia Legion, and similar groups.’
Andrei Shabanov has been held in custody since April 2024. He has a Group II disability and suffers from chronic conditions including psoriasis and ankylosing spondylitis. In 2025, at one of the hearings on extending his pre-trial detention, the musician took off his T-shirt during a recess to show the state of his skin, which was covered in psoriatic plaques. ‘Look at what’s happening to me!’ he told the prosecutor at the time. ‘I’m rotting alive! I’m rotting alive, and you’re giving me another six months? … They’re killing me, killing me alive! I’m rotting, rotting everywhere: my legs, my arms, my head. And you’re saying it isn’t happening. Aren’t you ashamed? Have you ever suffered from this? Do you know what this is, blood and pus? You must have some conscience, even just a little. What are you saying? I won’t survive six months. What for? I’ve lived with this for twenty years, I have a disability! … In the five months I spent in pre-trial detention, no one has given me any treatment, not once. And you can see what it’s turning into. And now another six months. I can’t do it. This will simply be murder. Psoriasis is a disease that affects the internal organs. They simply stop functioning, and I’ll die.’
