Each morning, the music playlist in a Russian prison serves as a different kind of torture for its inmates. According to "Newsweek" and the voting rights organization "Golos," one particularly harsh pre-trial detention center employs this method on prisoners awaiting trial, including political figures like Alexei Navalny.
The playlist includes a mix of songs – "It's My Life" and "One Wild Night" by Bon Jovi, "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC, and "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" and "Honey" by Moby, to name a few. Notably, the Russian national anthem is also on repeat, and the playlist runs for nearly an hour uninterrupted.
The organization "Golos" shared this information as part of a campaign addressing the imprisonment of its leader, Grigory Melkonyants. Melkonyants is allegedly the one who compiled the list while incarcerated himself.
Music torture isn't a unique Russian phenomenon. US prisons, including the infamous Guantánamo detention camp, have been known to use music as a tactic for psychological manipulation and disorientation. Metallica, Bruce Springsteen, and Eminem are just a few artists claimed to have been employed in such efforts, causing inmates to feel like they're going mad from the unending sound.
