‘This must be a terrible mistake’ Russia doesn’t have enough doctors — but that hasn’t stopped the authorities from arresting physicians on dubious charges
Russia may be grappling with a severe doctor shortage, but that hasn’t stopped the authorities from targeting the medical professionals they do have. In 2024, the Kremlin started cracking down on doctors perceived, even faintly, as deviating from the party line. Novaya Gazeta Europe took a look back at just a few of the medical professionals who’ve found themselves in the Kremlin’s crosshairs over the past year. Meduza shares a translation of the outlet’s reporting.
Nadezhda Buyanova
On November 12, 2024, a Moscow court sentenced pediatrician Nadezhda Buyanova to five and a half years in prison for allegedly spreading “disinformation” about the Russian military. The charges stemmed from a complaint by Anastasia Akinshina, a soldier’s widow, who had brought her seven-year-old son to see Buyanova.
Prosecutors claimed that Akinshina told the doctor her husband had died in the war in Ukraine and that her son was struggling with the loss, after which Buyanova “mocked” her, calling the soldier a “legitimate target for Ukraine.” Buyanova denied the accusations and noted that Akinshina’s account had changed multiple times.
On February 2, law enforcement raided Buyanova’s apartment. That same day, at the direction of Investigative Committee Head Alexander Bastrykin, prosecutors opened a criminal case against her. Initially, the court denied the prosecution’s request to take her into custody, placing restrictions on her communications instead, but in April, she was sent to a remand prison.
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Russian doctors published an open letter supporting Buyanova, and a petition on Change.org calling for her release gathered thousands of signatures. Six months later, after her sentencing, doctors again spoke out against what they called Buyanova’s unjust persecution, filming a video appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We call for this pediatrician’s release so she can continue treating children,” they said. “We demand an immediate end to this disgraceful case.”
In her final statement to the court, Buyanova addressed the charge of “inciting ethnic hatred.” The daughter of a Russian father and a Belarusian mother, she explained that she grew up in Lviv, Ukraine, in a culturally and linguistically diverse environment, before moving to Russia, where she’s lived for the past 30 years. Such accusations, she said, contradict the essence of her profession.
“Hatred is too deep an emotion — it destroys the person who harbors it,” she said. “Such feelings are foreign to me, both as a person and as a doctor. Doctors provide care regardless of a patient’s nationality. Compassion and humanity are moral values without which there is no place for anyone in medicine.”
Sergey Butriy
“Russians are just like Europeans. We’re a European country — I deeply believe that,” Russian pediatrician Sergey Butriy said in an interview with journalist Katerina Gordeeva in March 2023. “We’re not allowed to live like Europeans. Put any European people in the conditions we face — with this government, with repression, with restrictions on freedom of speech — and they would act more or less the same.”
Nearly a year later, on February 22, 2024, Butriy was arrested and charged with “inciting hatred and enmity.” According to investigators, Butriy’s remarks in the interview were directed “against doctors who share the values of Russian society.” After serving 10 days in jail, Butriy left the country. He now lives in Georgia, where he treats patients at a local Russian-language clinic.
Butriy said that while he was in jail, the authorities “clearly hinted” that this arrest would not be the end of his troubles.
“The dark times won’t last forever. Hug your loved ones more often, and take care of yourselves,” Butriy wrote on his Telegram channel, Notes of a Pediatrician, in a message announcing his departure from Russia.
Butriy is one of Russia’s most prominent advocates for evidence-based pediatric medicine. On his blog, he offers practical advice to parents, explaining such things as how to recognize dehydration, treat gastroenteritis, and stay informed about vaccines and new medications. His posts consistently link to verified sources and statistics.
Vladimir Martov
On May 15, Vladimir Martov, a Belarusian critical care physician, was arrested in Murino, a town in Russia’s Leningrad region.
For nearly two decades, Martov was the head of the anesthesiology and critical care department at a hospital in Vitebsk, Belarus. However, he was fired in 2021 after drawing attention to an accident at the hospital’s oxygen station that killed several people.
Martov also openly criticized the Belarusian government’s negligence during the COVID-19 pandemic and its suppression of accurate mortality statistics. After his dismissal, he began recording a podcast, At War with COVID-19, which was released on the YouTube channel of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Belarus service — already labeled an “extremist organization” by Belarusian authorities.
In February 2022, Martov was arrested and sentenced to seven days in jail, officially for displaying the white-red-white Belarusian opposition flag as his Facebook profile picture. Following his release, Martov moved to Russia to live with relatives. Two and a half years later, the Russian law enforcement arrested him, officially citing immigration violations.
On August 6, Andrei Strizhak, the head of BYSOL, a foundation supporting victims of political repression in Belarus, wrote on Facebook that Martov had made his way to Lithuania. Martov now lives there, is learning Lithuanian, and hopes to resume his medical career.
Nikolai Serebrennikov
According to Russian investigators, neurosurgeon Nikolai Serebrennikov made seven donations to the late Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation between August 2021 and February 2022. The total amount of his contributions to the organization, which Russia has labeled “extremist,” was 3,500 rubles (approximately $31). Following his arrest in December, a court in Arkhangelsk imposed pre-trial restrictions but did not remand him into custody. His current status remains unclear.
Serebrennikov has 25 years of experience as a neurosurgeon. Since 2000, he has worked at Arkhangelsk’s First City Clinical Hospital. In 2016, he was named “Best Doctor of the Year” in a regional competition for successfully performing a complex surgery to replace three vertebrae affected by a tumor.
“Nikolai Serebrennikov saved my life. In 2022, he removed a spinal tumor that could have left me severely disabled. Thanks to his gifted hands, I’m alive and walking on my own,” one woman commented on a news article about his arrest. “I’m deeply grateful to him and believe he’s innocent. This must be a terrible mistake.”
Mass searches
On October 16, Russian law enforcement searched the homes of doctors in multiple cities who had signed an open letter to the Investigative Committee demanding an investigation into the death of imprisoned opposition politician Alexey Navalny. According to Ivan Zhdanov, the director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, the raids were carried out as part of an “extremism” case.
Alexander Vanyukov, one of the letter’s initiators, said that even doctors who hadn’t signed the petition had their homes searched. He added that three doctors were arrested and that investigators focused primarily on the administrators of a group chat the doctors used to coordinate signatures for various initiatives.
“The chat was fairly large. It’s likely that some participants weren’t who they claimed to be, despite our efforts to verify their identities. For a time, there may have been people in the group who had no connection to medicine,” Vanyukov said.
In Ryazan, one of the raids targeted anesthesiologist and critical care doctor Yekaterina Terekhina. Her husband said the officers claimed they were acting on orders from Moscow to “deal with” medical professionals involved in the chat. During the search, FSB agents demanded Terekhina’s phone password, threatening her with workplace repercussions if she refused. After the search, she was taken in for questioning by the FSB and later released.
In Moscow, the homes of Milana Z., a pediatrician, and Irina Listratkina, a group chat administrator, were also raided. Listratkina’s phone was confiscated, but she was not arrested.
The status of Terekhina, Milana Z., and Listratkina in the “extremism” case remains unclear.
Reporting by Ilya Andreyev for Novaya Gazeta Europe
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