Seven pretrial detention centers previously run by Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service have been transferred to FSB control, according to data in Russia’s EGRUL corporate registry. The independent Russian investigative outlet The Insider first reported the transfers.
The facilities are: Lefortovo pretrial detention center No. 2 in Moscow; pretrial detention center No. 3 in St. Petersburg, known as Shpalerka; pretrial detention center No. 4 in Rostov-on-Don; pretrial detention center No. 5 in Krasnodar; pretrial detention center No. 6 in Vladikavkaz; pretrial detention center No. 7 in Chelyabinsk; and pretrial detention center No. 8 in the annexed city of Simferopol.
Most of the facilities also underwent a change in leadership at the same time, with the exception of those in St. Petersburg and Chelyabinsk. The name of the director of the Simferopol facility is redacted in the EGRUL registry entry.
In the summer of 2025, the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, passed a law restoring the FSB’s right to operate its own pretrial detention centers. The law took effect in January 2026.
The FSB had held that right until 2006, when the facilities were transferred to Justice Ministry control as part of Russia’s obligations upon joining the Council of Europe. The independent Russian news outlet Mediazona reported that, in practice, the FSB retained effective control over certain pretrial detention centers after the transfer — including Moscow’s Lefortovo pretrial detention center No. 2, which is located next to the FSB’s Investigative Directorate.
Russia withdrew from the Council of Europe in 2022 following the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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