Inflation, unpaid wages and unemployment have made life for many Russians a misery. But the people of the remote island of Sakhalin in the Far East have suffered more than most. It was hit by an earthquake in 1995 but it was so remote that President Yeltsin refused to send aid. The BBC's Moscow correspondent Andrew Harding reports:

Nadezhia Drogonova skins another stray dog for supper.

Nadezhia Drogonova can barely afford to feed her children

She says it is the only food she and her 3 young children can afford to eat.

"You can get used to anything", she says as she prepares the evening meal.

"It all started last year when they stopped paying us and we started eating dogs. We catch them in the yard outside."

The timber industry no longer pays

Her family live on Sakhalin island - a remote sliver of wilderness 7,000 kilometres away from the bright lights of Moscow.

This isolated community once made a living from the thick forest which surrounds it.

But the local timber mill is now broke. Its machinery is rusting and the workers have not been paid for many many months.

One worker nailed his hand to the wall in protest

The situation has driven several people in the area to suicide and some to other extremes.

Late last year, one of the workers nailed his own hand to a wall in protest over the lack of wages.

In the midst of this crisis the local prison has emerged as an unlikely saviour.

Prisoners have regular food

The 1,500 inmates are supposed to be doing hard labour for their crimes. It is one of the stranger ironies of modern Russian life that the convicts here seem to live better than those on the outside.

They at least have regular food, heating and a chance to earn money.

Now the prisoners have decided to help the community.

Some have taken up knitting, making warm clothes for local school children.

"Most of us here know what it is like to be cold and hungry" said one man, a convicted burglar.

The prisoners share their bread with nearby schools

He and his colleagues have already donated some money to a nearby orphanage.

Then there are the bread deliveries. Every prisoner has agreed to ration his bread allowance. The excess is now delivered straight from the prison bakery to nearby schools.

Back in Moscow the Kremlin insists it is not to blame.

The people feel abandoned by Moscow

The central government says it has now paid all its debts to state workers right across Russia. Anything else is up to the local authorities to sort out.

That is not much comfort for the people of Sakhalin. The island's crumbling economy has been paralysed by a spiral of debts both public and private.

"Russia has forgotten us", says one local worker. "We might as well be in prison."
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