8 июня 2007 Года
June 8, 2007. MINISTER FACES POSSIBLE INVESTIGATION
 Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov has requested the General Prosecutor’s office to investigate wrongdoing on the part of Minister of Health and Social Development Mikhail Zurabov
On a visit to the city of Tula, the speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament lambasted Minister Zurabov’s work. “The Federation Council intends to send an official request to the General Prosecutor’s office to launch an investigation regarding the ministry’s use of funds allocated for medical subsidies,” Mironov told members of the Tula region’s parliament.
“We have some serious questions regarding Mr. Zurabov who, in my opinion, shouldn’t be a minister at all. We can’t see where 17 billion rubles allocated for providing subsidized drugs to elderly and sick people have gone.” Mironov added that, according to his sources, in a number of Russian regions, the allocated money has either been misused completely or has been wasted on buying drugs at inflated prices.
Sergei Mironov finds the situation with drug subsidies and the overall health care system in Russia, as represented by Mr. Zurabov, deplorable. “If you listen to Mr. Zurabov’s comments before the Federation Council, one gets the impression that nobody is sick in Russia and, if people are sick, they are getting all of the prescription drugs that they need for free. But the reality is very different. Many of our citizens are literally dying because the state is failing to provide them with basic medications,” added Mironov.
It should be noted that this is one of the few situations in which the heads of Russia’s upper and lower houses of parliament are in complete agreement. In early April the speaker of the State Duma, Boris Gryzlov, stated that the Ministry of Health and Social Development would soon cease to exist in its current form and that Zurabov would soon be removed from his post.
Zurabov, however, has thus far refused to resign, adding that the criticism directed against him is politically motivated and related to the approaching presidential and parliamentary elections. “I will continue to work, especially since certain reforms are only in their nascent stages and need to be continued,” stated Zurabov.
Translated by Artem V. Zagorodnov
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