The alleged leaders of the failed August coup are living better than regular prisoners, a newspaper reports.
Pravda said in its Wednesday edition that the prisoners' food was decent. It said that on Tuesday they had soup, noodles with meat, tea and bread. This compares with the watery oatmeal, bread and occasional soup served to regular prisoners, according to recent media reports.Pravda published three photographs with the short article - one showing Anatoly Lukyanov, the former chairman of the Soviet parliament, who was arrested and imprisoned for his alleged role in planning the failed August 18-21 coup.
Lukyanov, former Defense Minister Dmitri Yazov, former KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov and other coup-plotters are being held in the Matrosskaya detention center pending trial on treason charges following the attempted ouster of Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.
In the picture, Lukyanov was shown in a track suit sitting at a wooden table. Another photo showed a cell with clean but rudimentary washing facilities and the third showed guards patrolling the halls of the facility.
In October, the newspaper Izvestia reported that Kryuchkov and former Prime Minister Valentin Pavlov had filed complaints about insufficient food.