Life-term ex-senator begins hunger strike at Russia's Black Dolphin prison

Former Russian senator Rauf Arashukov has launched a hunger strike while serving a life sentence at the Black Dolphin maximum-security penal colony in Russia's Orenburg Region, his lawyer, Dmitry Trubnikov, told TASS.

According to Trubnikov, the hunger strike began on Saturday, August 1, with Arashukov consuming only water. The lawyer said his client is being held in a punishment cell (SHIZO) without the right to work and is demanding that prison authorities provide what he described as "normal conditions" for employment.

Earlier, on June 2, Trubnikov said Arashukov had been assigned to work in an "individual" sewing workshop within the prison.

Arashukov was arrested on January 30, 2019, during a closed session of Russia's Federation Council. On the same day, authorities also detained his father, Raul Arashukov, a former adviser to the director general of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz.

On December 27, 2022, the Moscow City Court, acting on a jury's verdict, sentenced both men to life imprisonment after finding them guilty of creating and leading an organized criminal group, orchestrating the murders of Aslan Zhukov, leader of the Adyghe Khase youth movement, and Fral Shebzukhov, an adviser to the president of Russia's Karachaevo-Cherkessia Republic, as well as stealing 4.4 billion rubles (approximately $55 million) worth of natural gas from Gazprom. Prosecutors said the killings were carried out to conceal the large-scale gas theft scheme.

In a separate bribery case, the Leninsky District Court in Orenburg sentenced Arashukov on January 13, 2026, to 10 years in prison and imposed a fine of 120 million rubles (around $1.5 million). Taking into account his previous convictions, the court ordered that he continue serving a life sentence and upheld the 120 million-ruble fine. The ruling was affirmed by an appellate court on March 18, 2026.

By Vafa Guliyeva