The Federal Governmental Institution — penal colony No. 18 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, commonly known as the Polar Owl (), is a Russian prison located on the bank of the Sob River near the Polar Urals in the urban-type settlement of Kharp. It is one of the seven supermax ("special regimen", in Russian terminology) corrective labor colonies operated by the Federal Penitentiary Service for convicts sentenced to life imprisonment in Russia. In addition to special regimen it has sections with common and strict regimens.
History Kharp was founded in 1961 during the construction of the Salekhard–Igarka Railway. The core of the new settlement was a camp for prisoners who worked on laying the railway. Subsequently, the camp was transformed into a prison for particularly dangerous recidivists. The prison received the status of a colony for life convicts in 2005.
In 2010–2012, there were reports in the media that some employees of the colony were involved in a scandal with the falsification of confession. Some guards were suspected of beating testimonies from prisoners with the use of physical and psychological violence. Novaya Gazeta reported 190 false confessions, while Izvestia reported 32. According to Novaya Gazeta, the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug tried to hush up the case, since high-ranking officials could be involved in it.
Notable inmates
Name Born Notes Nikolai Ageyev 1974 Russian serial killer who killed his cellmate at Polar Owl Firuz Aituganov 1990 Tajikistani serial killer and rapist Alexander Elistratov 1954–2011 Made an unsuccessful escape attempt in 2011 Russian robber and serial killer Alexander Greba 1980 Russian serial killer Yevgeny Kolesnikov 1984–2016 Killed himself at the colony, Russian serial killer Nikolay Korolyov 1981 Leader of the neo-Nazi terrorist group Spas Nur-Pashi Kulayev 1980 Sole survivor of the 32 hostage-takers in the 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis Alexander Lokhtachyov 1981 1/2 pair of Russian serial killers who raped and murdered eight women and girls around Magnitogorsk Sergey Osipenko 1970 Kazakhstani-Russian serial killer and rapist Ivan Panchenko 1968 Russian rapist and serial killer. Alexander Pichushkin 1974 Serial killer Sergey Pomazun 1981 Mass shooter Oleg Ten 1975 Uzbekistani-born Russian serial killer and former policeman Dmitry Voronenko 1971 Kyrgyzstani-Ukrainian serial killer Mikhail Yudin 1975 Russian serial killer Abdufatto Zamanov 1973 Tajik-born Russian serial killer Sergey Zastynchanu 1979 Moldovan serial killer Alexander Zhizhich 1979 One half of a killing team with his brother
See also IK-3 "Polar Wolf", another prison in Kharp
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