About Russian prison system--
"The horror of this system is not that there are only sadists there. The horror of this system lies in the banality of evil." [ ~ 20:00]
There are maybe 10-15% sadist there, Mr Yashin said, people who torture you and get pleasure from it. "Most of the FSIN employees are ordinary people who just play by the rules."
In other words, the system isn't just stocked with total monsters, but there are sometimes glimmers of humanity shown by the people there.
People had to write up reports about minor violations as excuses to keep him in solitary, 15 days at a time then another to put him back in.
"I spoke to the people writing reports about me.... [They said] 'how can I refuse? I'm an employee, my boss told me to do it..'."
We see that the russian prison system and the Russian state as well as any repressive authoritarian state relies on ordinary people who are "just following orders ".
They are just people who have consciences that might be awakened at times, as the system hasn't dulled it fully, but for whom the cost is too high to resist so they are part of what is happening to the people who are being hurt