Russia plans to use prison labor for 2018 World Cup

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian authorities are keen to use prison labor to drive down the costs of holding the 2018 World Cup.

The Russian prison service is backing a bid by Alexander Khinshtein, a lawmaker from the ruling United Russia party, to allow prisoners to be taken to work at factories, with a focus on driving down the costs of building materials for World Cup projects.

Khinshtein tells the Associated Press that the convicts would provide cheap labor, meaning World Cup projects would have ''the opportunity to acquire building materials for a lower price, lower than there currently is on the market.''

Russian prison labor schemes have faced allegations that prisoners are routinely underpaid or…