Lefortovo Prison () is a prison in Moscow, Russia which has been under the jurisdiction of the Russian Ministry of Justice since 2005. The prison was built in 1881 in the Lefortovo District of Moscow, named after Franz Lefort, a close associate of Tsar Peter I the Great. In the Soviet Union, during Joseph Stalin's 1936-38 Great Purge, Lefortovo Prison was used by the NKVD secret police for mass executions and interrogational torture. Lefortovo was an infamous KGB prison and interrogation site (called an "investigative isolator", or СИЗО: следственный изолятор) for political prisoners. In 1994, the prison was transferred to the MVD; from 1996 to 2005, it was under the jurisdiction of the FSB, a KGB successor agency. The prison is said to have strict detention conditions. Only visits by lawyers are allowed. Letters can be received but are read by prison officials. Notable prisoners Several members of the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt Igor Artimovich Sergey Beseda, former head of the Fifth Service under President Putin until the 2022 invasion of Ukraine; reportedly imprisoned over intelligence failures and embezzlement. Frode Berg, Norwegian spy Vasily Blyukher Vladimir Bukovsky Nicholas Daniloff Alexander Dolgun Boris Kolesnikov Hugo Eberlein Bernt Ivar Eidsvig, Catholic Bishop of Oslo Rashid Khan Gaplanov, Education and Finance Minister of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic Yevgenia Ginzburg Nikolai Glushkov Chingiz Ildyrym, Azerbaijani Bolshevik and statesman Ekaterina Kalinina Vladimir Kirpichnikov Eston Kohver Zoya Krakhmalnikova, Soviet Christian dissident Platon Lebedev Eduard Limonov Alexander Litvinenko Vil Mirzayanov Levon Mirzoyan Osip Piatnitsky Leonid Razvozzhayev Ian Rokotov Mathias Rust, 18-year-old West German who landed a Cessna 172 airplane near Red Square. Valery Sablin Natan Sharansky Sergei Skripal Andrei Sinyavsky Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Igor Sutyagin , French journalist and supporter of compliance with the Helsinki Agreement Nadezhda Ulanovskaya, wife of Alexander Ulanovsky Raoul Wallenberg Khalil Rza Uluturk, Azerbaijani poet. Lina Prokofiev, wife of Sergei Prokofiev Helmuth Weidling, German Army general Paul Whelan, American arrested in Moscow for espionage (citizen of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland). Denys Prokopenko Redis, Ukrainian Army Lieutenant Colonel, Commander of Azov Regiment Svyatoslav Palamar Kalyna, Ukrainian Army Captain, Deputy Commander of Azov Regiment Serhii Volynskyi Volyna, Ukrainian Army Major, Commander of 36th Marine Infantry Brigade See also Qincheng Prison References External links Lefortovo prison – Includes hand-drawn floorplan "New Times Loom for Fabled Lefortovo Prison", The St. Petersburg Times, June 7, 2005 Buildings and structures in Moscow Buildings and structures built