How Russia harasses people demanding access to substitution therapy through the European Court of Human Rights

Alexei Kurmanayevsky, former staff member at the Vershina Kazan rehabilitation clinic, recounts how he was harassed and fired because of his views on substitution therapy.

In May of 2014, I was once again admitted to the Vershina Kazan rehab clinic. When I was finally discharged, I found out about the Healthy Country Foundation headed by Alexander Savitskiy and was overjoyed that my like-minded associate is developing an organization working to open rehabilitation centers all over the country. At first I worked for the Foundation as a volunteer and then my wife Maria got a job there as a head of the outpatient program.

Let me give you a brief overview of the Foundation’s structure: the Healthy Country positions itself as a non-profit organization which developed a rehabilitation program and is now offering it for implementation at the Vershina Kazan rehabilitation center. In reality, the General Director of OOO Vershina (Vershina Kazan’s legal name) is accountable to the Foundation management.

I was employed at the center for eight months: at first, as a volunteer and after I went through their internship I became a chemical dependency consultant. This job does not officially figure in my employment record book, although I was offered such an opportunity. My primary employment record is being kept at another organization. My volunteer duties while at the Foundation were primarily to inform people and various organizations about the program TS Vershina.

At roughly the same time, in the summer of 2014, Russia was contacted by the European Court of Human Rights with regards to my case on substitution therapy (ST).

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