In Astrakhan, an official loses her position after commenting on a seriously ill patient

Anna Lubeznova, an official from the press service of the Ministry for Public Health for the Astrakhan Region, was dismissed from her position after posting a critical comment on Facebook under a request for help written by a young woman suffering from a rare blood disease. The official herself stated that she did not write the comment and that her Facebook account was hacked.

On June 21, a post was published in Facebook with a request to help Irina Vasilieva, a resident of Astrakhan, who, according to the Facebook user, suffered from a rare blood disease. According to the post, in early 2017, the Ministry for Public Health for the Astrakhan Region offered the young woman an expensive medicine; however, in March, the officials allegedly stated that they could not longer pay for her medicine.

"Every day, the health state of Irina Vasilieva deteriorates, and the first signs of haemolysis have already appeared. We encourage the Astrakhan media to show their civil position, make the situation public and help save the life of a young and beautiful young woman," writes the Facebook user.

Anna Lubeznova, an official from the press service of the Ministry for Public Health for the Astrakhan Region, has left the following comment under the above request for help: "How such a huge amount of money can be spent for one person, when in Astrakhan, there are so many families in need of basic housing. The amount of 30 million roubles is enough to provide apartments to 12 families. And people take mortgages for such amounts to be paid during 25 years, and they give births to their children, pay taxes and do not complain about anything."

Officials from the Ministry for Public Health for the Astrakhan Region have commented on the situation and reported that Anna Lubeznova, who expressed her personal opinion in the social network, was dismissed.

According to Anna Lubeznova herself, her Facebook account was hacked by unidentified people. "I wrote nothing of that kind, my Facebook contact was simply hacked, and such a bad situation took place because of that," said Anna Lubeznova as quoted by the RIA "Novosti".

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