Russia Plans To Use Prison Labor For 2018 World Cup

Image Credit: Sports.ru
Image Credit: Sports.ru

This week, the Russian government proposed using prison labor to lower costs for hosting the 2018 World Cup. Since prisoners are not paid for their work, or are paid very little, this is without a doubt slave labor. Regardless, the inmates are still being forced to work against their will and have no ability to negotiate a wage.

“It’ll help in the sense that there will be the opportunity to acquire building materials for a lower price, lower than there is currently on the market. And apart from that it’ll make it possible to get prisoners into work, which is very positive,” Russian politician Alexander Khinshtein told The Associated Press.

Khinshtein said that prisoners would be forced to perform “tasks that, let’s say, wouldn’t appeal to the ordinary citizen.”

The current budget for the 2018 World Cup is now over 637.6 billion rubles ($12.7 billion), but it has not been specified how much employing prison labor will cut off of the budget.

World Cup events are actually some of the most inhumane large scale projects in the world, subjecting workers to horrible conditions. It was reported last year that Nepalese migrant workers died at a rate of one every two days in 2014 preparing for the Qatar World Cup.


John Vibes writes for True Activist and is an author, researcher and investigative journalist who takes a special interest in the counter culture and the drug war.

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