Moscow Radically Expands Categories of Russians who Can Be Subjected to Forcible Psychiatric Treatment

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 13 – In Soviet times, Moscow became notorious for its use of punitive psychiatry against dissidents, a practice that the Putin regime has revived. But now the Kremlin is going even further and declaring in legislation that Russians in many employment categories can be sent for forced psychiatric evaluation and treatment at their bosses’ whim.

            According to a recently adopted law, as of March 1, teachers, drivers, police, and restaurant workers can be sent against their will to psychiatric prison hospitals for evaluation and treatment. Experts say that this could open the way for any Russian to be so incarcerated and forcibly treated (svpressa.ru/society/article/498415/).

            The Russian authorities have been moving in this Orwellian direction for months, observers say; but now employers are likely to feel that they can send anyone to such facilities for forcible treatment, all the more so because the new law does not place any restrictions on the kind of actions or illnesses that supposedly justify that.

            Because of the shortage of beds in such facilities, the actual number of Russians who will become direct victims of this new policy is likely to be small; but its role as a means of intimidation of employees is likely to be enormous given that soon almost any worker can be sent there if his bosses so choose, actions that the courts are unlikely to block.