Volunteers are called to the doctor – Newspaper Kommersant No. 222 (7423) dated 11/30/2022

The Cabinet of Ministers submitted for discussion a draft resolution regulating the creation of medical boards for volunteer military personnel in each military registration and enlistment office. According to the document prepared by the Ministry of Defense, doctors will be able to conduct an examination in absentia, asking the health departments for information on medical examinations and preventive medical examinations of citizens signing a contract with the armed forces. The Presidential Council for Human Rights (HRC) does not understand why a similar proposal for medical examinations for the mobilized, sent to the government in October, has not yet been considered.

The draft resolution “On Amendments to the Regulations on Military Medical Expertise” was developed by the Ministry of Defense. The document is devoted, in particular, to the procedures for “examination”, “examination” of citizens entering volunteer units, and “establishing a causal relationship of injuries, diseases” with the passage of contract service. So, the city military commissar will have to “in the form of an electronic document” and “using a system of interdepartmental interaction” (and in the absence of such a system, “on paper”) request the results of medical examinations, preventive medical examinations and “other medical examinations” of a volunteer from healthcare officials. This must be done within three working days from the moment the person applied for signing the contract. Then, also within three days, it is necessary to send information “by postal service” to a higher commissariat “for an absentee examination” of the volunteer.

“Requirements for the state of health of citizens entering and staying in volunteer formations are determined by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation,” the text of the draft says. A list of such requirements or a reference to a normative act containing it is not presented in the draft.

The correspondence commission is conducted by a surgeon, therapist, neurologist, psychiatrist, ophthalmologist, ENT specialist, dentist, dermatovenereologist and “other” specialists “included in the military medical commission”, “if necessary”. They draw up a “conclusion” on the presence of certain diseases and injuries and enter them into the volunteer’s medical record. The conclusion can be of three types: corresponds, temporarily does not correspond and does not correspond at all to service in a volunteer formation. If the commission found it difficult to make a verdict in absentia, the volunteer will be called for a personal meeting with doctors.

A medical examination is also provided for volunteers already serving. They will be sent to commissions by commanders of military units. If a contractor is deemed unfit, he will be issued a “certificate of illness”. “When examining citizens who are in volunteer formations, the military medical commission establishes a causal relationship of injuries and diseases received by them, except in cases where these citizens are under investigation or when a criminal case against such citizens has been submitted to court,” the draft notes. Ministry of Defense. The commissions have the right to hold a meeting in absentia in order to establish a “causal relationship of injuries, illnesses” of volunteer employees in three cases: if the contractor has already been examined in person or was undergoing treatment; if “there are obvious consequences of bodily injuries received during the period of stay in a volunteer formation”; if he was injured while in the service, or died due to injuries, the receipt of which “can be attributed to the period of being in a volunteer formation.”

Full-time military medical commissions are constantly working in the commissariats, draws attention to the lawyer of the human rights organization “Soldiers’ Mothers of St. Petersburg” Alexander Gorbachev. The commissions conduct an examination, including those who have not previously entered the initial military registration, or those who are over 27 years old at the time of registration. “Why single out volunteers as a separate category for medical examination is unclear, because they are already assigned to military units,” the expert points out. “Volunteer battalions are being formed today under regional administrations and various near-state formations.”

Alexander Gorbachev recalls that for those mobilized as part of the military operation in Ukraine (according to the president’s statement, partial mobilization in the Russian Federation ended on October 31), no medical examinations were organized at all. In early October, members of the Presidential Human Rights Council proposed to create such structures with the participation of civilian doctors to assess the functional fitness of reservists. The need (and the absence in a number of regions) of mandatory examination procedures for fitness for service, experts, we note, have been talking since the announcement of partial mobilization on September 21. Attempts by the reservists to challenge the conscription in court on this basis remain unsuccessful in a number of cases to this day. Members of the Human Rights Council suggested launching a mechanism for the work of military medical commissions, similar to those that work during the period of draft campaigns. The proposals were sent to the government of the Russian Federation, but there was no response, the author of the initiative, Kirill Kabanov, told Kommersant.

“All mechanisms have been worked out on conscripts subject to military service, but we are told that mobilization is different, and commissions are not launched,” Mr. Kabanov is indignant. “We are still investigating cases where people (mobilized.— “b”) are trying to challenge their call on medical grounds. Volunteers are another category. Probably, if a seventy-year-old person wants to become a volunteer and he will be checked by a commission, that’s right.”

Maria Starikova