Two designer dogs cloned in a laboratory have started work guarding murderers and rapists at one of Russia's toughest jails .

Tom and Jack, valued at £75,000 each, have shown skills "beyond all expectations" in their first three weeks at Forced Labour Camp Number One in Yakutsk, the world's coldest city.

The pair were bred by leading international cloning expert Dr Hwang Woo Suk from South Korea.

He gifted them to the law enforcement authorities in Siberia's vast Yakutia region, where he is separately hunting for woolly mammoth remains preserved in the permafrost in his quest to clone the hairy giants back to life.

The Belgian Malinois dogs are now guarding 720 males inmates at the harsh labour camp in which Russia has been accused of holding "political prisoners" such as Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker sentenced to 20 years jail for "plotting terrorists acts" in Crimea, which he denied.
The Belgian Malinois dogs are now guarding 720 males inmates at the harsh labour camp in which Russia has been accused of holding "political prisoners" (
Image:
FSIN in Yakutia/The Siberian Tim)
The dogs are guarding prisoners at Forced Labour Camp Number One in Yakutsk, the world's coldest city

He was moved from the high security penal colony soon after an August protest against his detention by punk group Pussy Riot in Yakutsk.

Earlier Tom and Jack -- bred in a Seoul laboratory from the cells of "best Korean sniffer dogs" - were reported to have flunked a test to join the police force in the city, Russia's diamond capital and once a key staging post for Stalin's gulag camps.

Experts now believe this test came too early, and that they needed longer to adapt to the harsh climate.

In the labour camp, they "have shown their ability to follow the trail of a would-be escapee," and navigate a canine obstacle course, reported The Siberian Times .

In the labour camp, they "followed the trail of a would-be escapee," and navigated an obstacle course
Tom and Jack, valued at £75,000 each, have shown skills "beyond all expectations" (
Image:
FSIN in Yakutia/The Siberian Tim)

They are "easily adapting to the environment" and surpassing expectations of their abilities.

Irina Babikova, senior dog instructor at the labour camp, said: "They are smart and have a gentle nature.

'Another positive thing is that they are able to keep working without paying attention to the external distractions and weather conditions."

This week temperatures are nudging minus 40C.

The designer dogs are among 500 cloned puppies from the Sooam Biotech laboratories in Seoul, the world's first animal cloning centre.