Paul Goble
Staunton, June 20 – Earlier this year, the Kremlin forced the Russian health ministry to reverse its decision to recognize the new International Classification of Diseases because that document asserts that homosexuality is not a disease, a position at odds with Putin’s ideas about traditional values.
That decision sparked outrage among the gay community and its defenders both in Russia and abroad, with many concluding that this move seriously harmed the rights of homosexuals and further distanced Russia from the West (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/02/moscow-further-distances-itself-from.html).
But now, Russian journalist Nikita Aronov who specializes on health issues says that it is important to recognize that many other groups of Russians, including most immediately Russian veterans suffering from PTSD, will he hurt as well as a result of this Kremlin move against homosexuals (theins.ru/obshestvo/272478).
As many as 20 percent of Russian soldiers returning from Ukraine suffer from PTSD, the Russian government has admitted (vedomosti.ru/politics/characters/2024/06/18/1044406-vazhno-chtobi-veterani-voennoi-operatsii-videli-perspektivi-v-mirnoi-zhizni); and their fate depends in large measure on which classification of that illness the authorities will use.
Under the old ICD, Aronov points out, those suffering from PTSD are “at risk of being misdiagnosed as ‘schizophrenics’ instead of receiving proper treatment,” while under the new ICD that Moscow has rejected, they would be far more likely to be accurately classified and given the treatment they need.
The same thing is true for those suffering from a variety of other diseases, including ADHD which is not listed in the former ICD manual, he continues; but it is striking that by refusing to recognize the new ICD as authoritative, Moscow has almost certainly guaranteed that none of these people, including those Putin calls “heroes,” will get the help they need.
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