Russian healthcare official tells angry crowd that her IQ is higher than theirs

Officials in a town outside Moscow are at the center of a scandal, after the deputy director for the regional healthcare department told a disgruntled crowd of locals that she has a higher IQ than they do.

Residents of Sobinka, a town in the Vladimir region outside Moscow, were invited to a public assembly on Wednesday, where they were told to expect an open discussion about local healthcare problems. Instead, angry residents say they had to sit through a lecture about the government’s healthcare successes.

When members of the crowd started shouting their discontent, Elena Ovchinnikova, the deputy director of the regional healthcare department, announced that anyone unhappy with the meeting was free to leave. “You know, I’m not going to shout over you,” Ovchinnikova said. “I’ve got an IQ slightly higher than yours. If there’s something you don’t like about this, then please go.”