The health and safety paperwork was rushed at a Russian perinatal center where 11 children later died

Transparency International Russia has learned that a perinatal center in Bryansk forced to shut down on June 9, after 11 children died in just three months, was technically permitted to open its doors to patients before it received its health and disease control certification and medical operating license. The certificate was also issued unusually fast in just 24 hours. The center opened on March 7, just in time for President Putin’s visit the next day.

The Bryansk perinatal center’s original grand opening was postponed from December 2016, after health and safety inspectors refused to sign off on the facility. Between March and June, 11 children died at the center, though Russian Health Ministry officials say the fatalities weren’t the result of health violations.

On June 23, Russian federal investigators launched a criminal case into potential negligence. The Bryansk perinatal center reopened on July 4.