Veterans will be invited to one window – Newspaper Kommersant No. 57 (7502) dated 04/04/2023

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the creation of the state fund “Defenders of the Fatherland” to support participants in a special military operation (SVO). It will be funded from the federal budget and will work “according to the MFC principle”: a branch will appear in each region where veterans and family members of the victims can apply for medical, legal and other assistance. The wards of the fund will be involved in public projects “aimed at the patriotic education of citizens.” The fund is planned to be financed from federal appropriations, voluntary contributions and “other sources”. Representatives of the combatants community approve of the initiative, but are concerned that veterans of conflicts in other hot spots are not mentioned in the documents of the foundation.

The decree on the creation of the Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation was published on Monday on the official Internet portal of legal information. The new structure will help veterans of military operations who have taken part in the SVO on the territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics since February 24, 2022, and in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions – since September 30, 2022; combatants in the Donbass as part of the armed forces of the DPR and the people’s militia of the LPR since May 11, 2014; family members of those who died during the hostilities, as well as those who died from wounds and diseases received at the front.

Anna Tsivileva, the wife of the Governor of the Kemerovo Region Sergey Tsivilev, and a member of the Government Council for Social Care, has been appointed Chairman of the Foundation. The Fund’s Supervisory Board is headed by First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Sergei Kiriyenko, while the Board of Trustees is headed by Minister of Labor and Social Protection Anton Kotyakov. Head of the Ministry of Health Mikhail Murashko is included in the supervisory board of the organization.

As the president announced on February 21 during his message to the Federal Assembly, the fund will provide comprehensive individual support for the wards, which will be handled by special social coordinators. The decree instructed the government to allocate funds for the training of such specialists; within two months to determine the property that will be transferred to the fund; within a month, approve the charter, the composition of the board and the composition of the expert council. By April 1, the government had to submit proposals “to clarify the main goals of the fund and expand the directions of its activities.” It is expected that the fund will supply SVO participants and their loved ones with medicines, including those not registered in Russia, as well as rehabilitation means that are not included in the federal list. Assistance will be provided in obtaining medical rehabilitation, psychological and psychotherapeutic assistance, sanatorium treatment, palliative care, long-term care. The wards will be assisted in obtaining the support measures required from the state, restoring documents, and adapting living quarters.

It is separately written that veterans, with the assistance of federal and regional authorities, will be involved in public projects “aimed at patriotic education of citizens, including youth, at protecting historical truth and historical memory, at preserving and strengthening in the mass consciousness the role of traditional Russian spiritual and moral values”. In addition, the wards of the foundation will be able to participate “in programs aimed at glorifying the exploits of members of the NWO and other persons.” They are also promised to be involved in the development and implementation of state programs to support war veterans.

Deputy Yana Lantratova (“A Just Russia – For Truth”; she is a member of the working group on NWO issues) told Kommersant that the fund’s branches in the regions will work “according to the MFC principle”: “You come, you get a coupon – and with you in the same window solve all the questions.” “It is important that an individual curator will be assigned to each. All relevant departments will also continue to work in this direction,” said Ms. Lantratova. According to her, the fund is “really needed by our soldiers and their relatives,” because now “some problems still arise” with processing payments, vacations, passing a military medical commission, and assigning the status of a combat veteran. “People sometimes just do not understand who to turn to for help, what documents to collect. It happens that some document is missing or there is an error in it. Sometimes there is not enough elementary information, there is no one to tell how to draw up documents, where to submit them. For example, many families do not know that they can receive free psychological help. This fund is designed to help put things in order,” said Yana Lantratova.

The executive director of the Memory of Generations charitable foundation for assistance to war veterans, Katerina Kruglova, emphasized that the state structure created by the government has broad powers and “de facto has the status of a ministry.” “The situation with assistance to military personnel is difficult, and the existing NGOs, alas, cannot cope. If we talk about our direction, then, as before, the biggest difficulties are with prosthetics,” said Ms. Kruglova. “We, like other NGOs, expect that entering the state level will provide systemic support and will speed up the receipt of necessary assistance by veterans.”

Mikhail Yashin, chairman of the Society for the Disabled of the War in Afghanistan – Moscow House of Soldiers’ Heart, said that the community accepted the published decree “with enthusiasm”. In his opinion, it is especially important that the fund will have regional branches: “That is, the guys, returning after completing combat missions, will solve their issues at home – health, payments, payment for prostheses and everything else. We consider this decision to be very correct. The only thing is that our veterans of military operations in Afghanistan, in the North Caucasus, who did not see themselves in the lists (potential wards.—) began to ask me questions. “b”) fund. Mr. Yashin is in favor of a clear definition in the law of the status of a combat veteran: this would allow assistance to be provided to all Russian veterans, no matter in what hot spot they served, and exclude their discrimination.

It should be noted that in Russia, the state fund “Circle of Good” operates according to a similar scheme, which supports children with severe life-threatening and chronic diseases, including rare (orphan) ones. It was created in 2021 by decree of Vladimir Putin. The organization, according to the opinions of the expert community, has proved its effectiveness in two years. “The Foundation uninterruptedly provides wards with medicines, without trials, without trials. Wrote applications and received. A dream, ”Elena Khvostikova, head of the Genome Patient Assistance Center, told Kommersant. The Circle of Kindness is constantly expanding the scope of its activities – including new diagnoses in the lists, adding directions for assistance, and increasing the age limit for wards. It exists at the expense of a 2% increase in tax (personal income tax) for those Russians whose annual income exceeds 5 million rubles. Taking into account the balances from 2021, the fund had 192.7 billion rubles in 2022. The decree on the creation of the “Defenders of the Fatherland” states that the activities of the fund and the formation of its property will be carried out at the expense of the budget allocations of the federal budget, voluntary property contributions and donations, as well as “other sources”.

Natalia Kostarnova