Russian authorities are being accused of systemically depriving Russian political prisoners and government critics of contact with families in order to ensure cooperation and “impose additional suffering on them and their families,” an Amnesty International report released on June 26 charged. “For a detainee facing investigation and trial, the denial of contact with the outside world is an effective reprisal used by the authorities to gain confession or a guilty plea,” the report, which compiled interview from 13 prisoners’ family members and friends, lawyers, and human rights defenders, read….
