Location: Polar Urals, north of Arctic Circle, 1,193 miles from Moscow. Climate: Winter temperatures average between -19 and -58 degrees Fahrenheit (-28 to -50 degrees centigrade). Security level: Maximum.

In October 2005 Platon Lebedev was sent to a remote penal colony located in the village of Kharp on the Yamalo-Nenets Peninsula (northwest Siberia), to serve the remainder of his eight year sentence. This frigid outpost is located in an area known to the indigenous inhabitants as "the End of the World."

The village of Kharp began as a labour camp for those building a railway during Stalin's time. Tens of thousands perished on the project. The camp was later transformed into a maximum security prison OG 98/3 for dangerous repeat offenders. Today the 126-year old building houses approximately 1,000 convicts and is regarded as a brutal prison. A former prison doctor has published accounts in Pravda newspaper of violence, neglect, torture and killings carried out by prison officials in the 1970s. Prisoners' cells are frequently searched, the prisoners are guarded by dogs, and a special service group monitors the convicts' behaviour.

Transfer to the Polar Urals is considered a measure reserved for perpetrators of grave crimes, as the effects of such a remote and climatically harsh area of Siberia tend to rapidly wear down individuals, both physically and emotionally. With temperatures ranging from -28 to -50 degrees centigrade in the winters, the prisoners often spend months at a time indoors. Lebedev's placement in OG 98/3 is therefore at odds with health protection measures for inmates.

Administrative order No. 346/254, issued jointly by Russia's Ministry of Public Health and Justice Ministry, contains a list of medical conditions which preclude a prisoner from serving a sentence in particular locations in the Russian Federation. Medical conditions specific to the Yamalo-Nenets Peninsula include chronic active hepatitis. Lebedev's medical records clearly show that he has suffered from chronic active hepatitis for many years.