The classes, introduced last year, were briefly suspended after the country’s prosecutor-general launched an investigation into claims by an influential religious scholar that they could lead to “the development of homosexual relationships between inmates”.

Alexander Dvorkin argued this would lead to security concerns and a possible “hunger strike in protest”.

However, Valery Maximenko, the deputy chief of the prison service, dismissed the claims in a statement accompanying the return of yoga to prison facilities in Moscow.

He said “nobody is being drawn towards homosexuality” by yoga, and added: “Even if they are, we have democracy in our country and everyone has the right to choose their own path.”

Mr Maximenko told the radio station Govorit Moskva that Mr Dvorkin had “outdated concepts” and did not “have the right to condemn anyone”, including “people of non-traditional orientation”.