Parents appeal to Putin for help with access to unregistered antiepileptic drugs, as Health Ministry officials deny any problems

Parents of terminally ill children and children with epilepsy, as well as staff at palliative care centers, have addressed an open letter to Vladimir Putin, calling on the president to provide access to vital medicines not currently registered in Russia — specifically the calming substance Diazepam.

The letter’s authors complain that Russia currently lacks a system for determining how many children in the country today need unregistered antiepileptic drugs. In a recent interview, Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova claimed that only seven children nationwide need such medicines, but the letter to Putin says the real number is closer to 23,000.

In June 2018, a woman in Moscow named Ekaterina Konnova was charged with trafficking illegal drugs after she tried to sell her personal supply of Diazepam, left over from treating her child. If convicted, Konnova could have gone to jail for as long as eight years. The case became a national scandal, and police promptly dropped the charges after public criticism from the Kremlin.