Russia staging Pop Idol for prisoners
Russia is staging its own version of Pop Idol in the country's prisons where inmates are competing for a recording contract and freedom.
The competition, open to the country's 748 high-security prisons, aims to discover a new national pop sensation.
The winner will be legally bound to perform a number of live concerts and will also be given a recording deal.
Prison wardens have been told to filter out applicants guilty of particularly gruesome crimes, but a number of convicted killers have nevertheless been allowed to enter.
One is 27-year-old Ruslan Anufriyev currently serving a 10-year sentence at prison camp 15 in the Ural mountains.
"I'm being offered a chance to change my life," said Ruslan. "I can win my freedom and become famous, and I'm not going to let that chance go begging."
But competition is stiff. Out of almost a million eligible convicts there are currently more than 1,000 final entries, many of them from female inmates.
The competition is being sponsored by Troika, one of Moscow's biggest radio stations, which denies it is exploitation.
"There's lots of talented people out there in those prisons, and this is just the way for them to be discovered," a spokesman said.
The finals are to be held at a concert hall in Moscow, and will be broadcast on television and radio.
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