Most of the once-lofty officials arrested in last month's failed coup have been transferred from private country homes and are now doing time in a prison with common criminals, newspapers reported Saturday.
Former KGB chief Vladimir Kryuchkov is sharing a cell with two criminals; his deputy, Col. Gen. Viktor Grushko has three cellmates; and former Defense Minister Dmitri Yazov has one, the newspapers said."Their conditions are no worse and no better than that of the other inmates," the newspaper Nezavisi-maya Gazeta quoted Russian Prosecutor Valentin Ste-pankov as saying.
The accounts dealt with 13 top government, military or party officials who were arrested on charges of treason for trying to topple Mikhail Gorbachev. The report did not include any information on former Supreme Soviet chairman Anatoly Lukyanov, who was arrested Thursday.
The accounts also did not identify the Moscow prison or say who owned the dachas outside of the city where the men had been held.
The reports detailed the conditions surrounding the former high officials once used to all the privileges of powerful party members.
They are allowed no visitors or food parcels, but clothes can be sent in. Yazov's relatives sent him a track suit and former Prime Minister Valentin Pavlov asked for his own jacket and cap to wear during daily strolls, the newspaper Rossiskaya Gazeta said.
"Wake-up time is 6 a.m., bedtime is 10 p.m. Each is allowed an hourlong walk in the open air. Their only privilege is a heavier guard," Stepankov told the paper.
Pavlov and former presidential chief of staff Valery Boldin each had a private cell, the paper said.
A doctor visited the men and treated various ailments: Yazov was suffering from arthritis; former Vice President Gennady Yanayev has chronic eczema, a skin disease; and former government industrial chief Alexander Tizyakov had high blood pressure, it said.
Stepankov said a search of Kryuchkov's office revealed that the ex-KGB chief kept files for 20 years, but none contained any compromising materials on top leaders, just "background information on the policies, economies and defenses of leading countries," the newspaper reported.
Since the coup's failure, the Russian prosecutor's office has been taking the leading role in the investigation. Soviet Prosecutor Nikolai Trubin said Thursday he was resigning to accept responsibility for some in his office who failed to oppose the coup.
Stepankov said he has 75 investigators working on the aftermath of the coup, with little office space or equipment.