Following a spate of controversial scientific endeavours, the credibility of the Russian Government is again in question after inmates near Moscow reddened the frosty cheeks of officials by throwing a lavish toga party involving caviar, McDonald’s and swordplay.
The opulent jailhouse festivity, captured on mobile phone and sprayed across the internet, showed inmates at Serpukhov jail dressed in Roman-style togas, brandishing cardboard weapons aside a sky-high feast fit for Caesar himself.
The cleft of embarrassment deepened after the images revealed one man dressed as a lion sporting a mirthful grin, while another showed a prisoner scooping a whopping serve of caviar onto a piece of bread. The pictures also reveal a knife, which (unsurprisingly), along with mobile phones, are banned in Russian jails.
Spokeswoman for the Federal Service for the Execution of Punishment (FSIN), Tatyana Soboleva, says any jail officials found guilty of harbouring such activity “will be brought to disciplinary responsibility”.
According to media reports, the party was held in honour of kingpin crime boss Anton Kuznetsov, who was recently convicted of robbery. The magnitude of the sinner’s shindig became apparent after images revealed him accepting a McDonald’s delivery from one of the prison’s hatches.
The incident draws comparisons to an event in 1994, when Butyrka prison officials allowed outsiders into the jail to celebrate the birthday of another high profile crime boss. Furthermore, it adds to the already shaky stance of Russia’s prison system following the death of a lawyer in 2009, which sparked worldwide concern.
Dr Biff Smith, Sociologist at the Soviet Station for Sumptuous Sinners (SSSS), believes there is fresh cause for concern, as the publicity of such an event could see an explosion in Russian sinning activity.
He says with the country’s increasingly high standard of sin living, the world’s wrongdoers will likely flood the land, and Russia could descend into caviar scoffing, sword yielding chaos.