In Russia, the organization of care for diabetics was recognized as a “foreign agent”

The Saratov public organization of people with diabetes, was established at the end of 1980 by doctors and teachers of the medical institute. But in 2018, she was accused of putting pressure on the government and was recognized as a “foreign agent”.

Фото: Depositphotos

How it happened, said the publication Medusa.

According to a member of the organization, Ekaterina Kulapina, the community mainly provides information support to people with diabetes, helps them to obtain insulin, and conducts educational activities for them. In total, there are about 82 in the Saratov region with thousands of people with diabetes, and sometimes there are interruptions in medicine in the region.

In August, 2017, a second-year student at the medical university Nikita Smirnov, wrote a complaint to the prosecutor's office when he learned that the organization receives money from abroad and "can engage in political activities."

“I considered it a civic duty to give a signal,” Smirnov said then.

The organization did receive grants from Russian subsidiaries of foreign pharmaceutical companies from 2014 to 2016 a year - a total of 645,5 thousand rubles (about $ 10,3 thousand).

In his complaint, Smirnov indicated that members of the organization were allegedly agitating people with diabetes to use foreign drugs. In fact, according to the members of the organization, they only oppose a full transition to domestic insulin (the import substitution policy in this industry began in the 2014 year after the introduction of Western sanctions). The organization believes that Russian insulin is simply not enough for all those in need and, in addition, the transition to new drugs is fraught with complications for the patient's health.

A few months later, the student's opinion changed. In December, 2017 of the year on his page on the social network VKontakte, he said: “Despite all the statements and actions that this organization could do, the first thing is that it helps people ... so I withdraw my application and is ready to help this organization in every way if necessary. ”

However, Smirnov’s decision to “withdraw the application” did not make sense - by that time, the prosecutor’s office had already conducted an audit of the organization and transferred its case to court.

During the check, the prosecutor's office turned to Ivan Konovalov, a history teacher from the Saratov Law Academy, for expert opinion.

In his conclusion, the expert concluded that the organization helping people with diabetes "transmits information to foreign partners about the so-called pain points of the region, especially in the provision of medical care to the population, which can be used to inspire protest attitudes in society." Konovalov also considered that the organization “forms the prerequisites for discrediting the authorities, unreasonably claiming the insolvency of the relevant structures of the regional government in the field of supply, distribution, import substitution of medicines among diabetics,” which can be qualified as a political activity.

15 December 2017, the prosecutor's office transferred two cases to the Frunzensky Court - against the organization itself and against its former head, Ekaterina Rogatkina; they were accused of violating part 1 of article 19.34 of the Administrative Code (“Work of an organization that is a foreign agent without registering in the relevant registry”).

The court recognized the organization as a “foreign agent”. Prosecutors insisted that criticism of Russian insulin is pressure on authorities

In February 2018, Konovalov appeared in court as a witness. This time, he said that the organization used “political technologies of clean water” and “typical technologies of black PR.” The historian cited as an example one of the organization’s brochures for the 2009 year, which stated that the regional ministry of health "began to build up a new corruption procurement scheme" of life-saving drugs. He stated that this publication causes "damage to the authority of the whole department." In addition, Konovalov noted that the “target of black technology”, which was used by people from the public organization to help people with diabetes, was Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In April, the 2018 of the year the court decided to conduct a political analysis of the organization’s activities, this happened only from the third time - the Kazan Autonomous Center of Expertise and the Saratov branch of the RANEPA refused to undertake it. As a result, the examination was conducted by researchers of the Saratov State Law Academy Elena Koloyartseva and Viktor Kupin.

The examination stated that the organization “undermined the socio-political stability of the region” with its activities.

On May 28, during the debate, Senior Assistant Attorney Yulia Shpigunova said that the criticism of the quality of Russian insulin from members of the organization should be regarded as “pressure on the authorities” - and therefore political activity - and supported the accusation in full.

Judge Maria Agisheva recognized the organization as a “foreign agent” and fined her 300 thousand rubles ($ 4800).

The current head of the organization Larisa Saygina said that they did not expect such a decision and would appeal against it. She also noted that she “does not know” where the organization will take money to pay the fine if the appeal does not lead to anything.

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