RUSSIA INSULIN DEBT: 12 MILLION AT RISK

15 February 1993

Up to 12 million people in Russia could die because of a shortage of insulin, says Victor Volkov, head of a Moscow legal consultancy. Russia and its CIS partners are unable to produce high-quality insulin, and so need to purchase it abroad, but Russia now owes $24.9 million to its western suppliers, he says. Failure to meet the debt means that contracts for insulin supplies for 1993 have not been concluded.

Mr Volkov says he had appealed to the former premier, Yegor Gaydar, to deputy prime minister Aleksandr Shokhin and to the health committee of the Supreme Soviet, but had received no reply from Mr Gaydar or the committee. He made a final appeal to Congress last December, backed with a threat to start criminal proceedings for "failure to take action to save lives."

Mr Shokhin eventually sent orders to the relevant ministries and departments to take action, but none was taken. A letter has now been sent to the Procurator-General of the Russian Federation requesting a start to criminal proceedings. Local prosecutors have also been asked to collect data on deaths from lack of insulin.

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