Soldier's mothers go to court to demand information from MoD about soldiers wounded in Ukraine

The organization named "Soldiers' Mothers of Saint Petersburg" has filed a lawsuit demanding to invalidate the refusal of the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) to provide information about hospitalization of soldiers wounded in the warfare in the territory of Ukraine. It was explained to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent at the press service of the Southern Military District that population can get answers to such questions at the public reception offices of the MoD.

On August 26, the "Soldiers' Mothers of Saint Petersburg" learnt from the media that up to 100 wounded servicemen were hospitalized to the KirovMilitaryMedicalAcademy. However, the request lodged by Ella Polyakova, the leader of the organization and a member of the Russian Presidential Council on Civil Society and Human Rights, was rejected by the MoD on the grounds that such information constitutes a medical secret.

Polyakova filed a lawsuit to the Frunze District Court demanding to treat the above refusal received from the Chief Military Medical Department of the MoD as illegitimate.

The authorities are inventing new excuses to close the information, in this case relating it to the medical secret, despite the fact that back in 2001 the MoD lost the opportunity to legitimately treat the information about the losses in the armed forces in peacetime as a state secret, believes Ivan Pavlov, an expert of the Foundation for Freedom of Information, who is quoted in the today's statement posted on the website of the "Soldiers' Mothers of Saint Petersburg".

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.