Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: Russia
Anish Vij
Eagle-eyed internet sleuths have discovered an eerie Google Maps image of what's been dubbed as 'one of the most depressing places ever'.
Located in Krasnoyarsk Krai in Russia, the image shows piles of grey rubble and demolished infrastructure.
It is the location of one of Russia's horror gulags (forced labour camps), which was in operation from from June 25, 1935 to August 22, 1956, reports The Sun.
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Norillag, the Norilsk Corrective Labour Camp is located at 69°24'19°N 87°38'57°E and according to one Reddit user from the r/GoogleMaps group, they were able to match up the images and coordinates.
"It is indeed the Norillag labour camp," they wrote.
"You can even see the mining facility connected to the camp further west.
"Good catch OP [original poster]!"
Throughout its history, the camp saw 400,000 inmates working there to dig for copper and nickel.
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It is believed that three quarters of the inmates were political prisoners.
Many died from the inhumane conditions.
A wooden bell gable at the Norilsk Golgotha memorial can be seen, which commemorates the prisoners of Norillag.
They say that the Gulag system had over 30,000 camps in Russia with roughly three percent of the population were imprisoned or in internal exile.
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In modern Russia, constant talks of an imminent Ukraine invasion by Russia have seen the UK's Foreign Secretary warn that it could be a 'very dangerous moment' for the world.
Lizz Truss told Sky News: "If we saw an invasion into Ukraine, there would be severe costs in terms of a long-running conflict, we could see the undermining of security more broadly in Europe and could see other aggressors around the world see it as an opportunity to expand their ambitions too.
"This is a very dangerous moment for the world.
"This is, of course, about Ukraine, which is an important sovereign nation but it's also about the wider stability of Europe and it's about wider global security.
"We cannot give a message that aggression gets rewards," she added.
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Ms Truss also warned that Russia would 'not stop at Ukraine' if it invaded.
"The big risk, of course, is if there is an invasion into Ukraine that will be hugely damaging for Russia and Ukraine. And it will further undermine the stability of Europe," she said.
"This, I fear, would not stop at Ukraine. This is an attack on the neighbouring states of Russia and other east European countries in trying to undermine legitimacy of them being part of NATO."