MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. Torture of convicts in prisons is a world problem, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the customary year-end news conference on Thursday.

"As far as torture and cruel treatment of convicts in penitentiaries are concerned, they are not only Russia’s problem, but a world one. If you take a look at what is happening in such establishments in other countries, you will see that such problems there are as frequent. It is a world problem," Putin said in reply to a question from journalist Ksenia Sobchak.

He stressed that such institutions in some countries looked decently only at first sight.

"But in Europe, say, in France, and in the United States there are many places of a kind that, I believe, no longer exists in third world countries," he stated.

Putin said that the conditions in the penitentiary system were high on the agenda. As an example, he mentioned a new detention center in the Leningrad Region, built after his visit to the old facility on his instructions.

"This must be done because even simple conditions that lie on the surface are of importance," he stressed.