Disability in Russia

Impact

“But We Are Always at Home”: Disability Activism, Solidarity, and Staying at Home. (2022, NYU Jordan Center)

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Human rights defenders secure prosecutors’ attention to problems of people with disabilities in Dagestan. “Officials of the Pension and Social Insurance Fund of Dagestan may face criminal prosecution in connection with regular violations of the rights of people with disabilities to medical products and rehabilitation means.” (2023, Caucasian Knot)

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How Russia Depicts Wounded Soldiers: As Heroes, or Not at All.

“Troops with amputated limbs or serious injuries return home to find a patchwork system of treatment and, often, efforts to keep them out of the public eye.” One woman caring for her husband wrote “I feel like I’m putting my loved one together like a puzzle.” (Feb, New York Times)

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Overview

Russia sees first rise in disability registrations in 11 years — but wartime injuries are only part of the story. An investigation of the possible causes. (Nov, Meduza)

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Research

Intercorporeal Togetherness: On Russian Blind Activists’ Technology of Disability Inclusion. (2022, Cultural Anthropology)

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Social Protection

Russia’s Social Insurance Fund stops publishing disability data after journalists used the information to track injured soldiers. (2023, Meduza)

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In-demand and unaccommodated “Russia is turning to people with disabilities to fill its labor shortage. But deep-seated accessibility issues are undermining its efforts.” (Apr, Meduza)

Search for people to build fortifications, including digging trenches, mentions jobs for persons with disabilities. (2022, Yahoo! News)

Barriers and Opportunities to Employment for Persons with Disabilities (2021, World Bank)

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Inclusive Vocational Education in Russia: “the experience of special vocational education for people with disabilities during the Soviet period.” (May, Inclusive Education in the Russian Federation)

A book review of The Broken Years: Russia's Disabled War Veterans, 1904-1921. The book argues that the rights of disabled people as a minority were born out of the 1917 February revolution. (2022, H-Net)

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Conditions in Institutions

Ingushetia disability care home accused of chaining naked patients to benches

“Following social media backlash over the images of the abuse, Russia’s Investigative Committee announced on Tuesday that they had opened an investigation.” (Sep, OC Media)

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Tedtalk on How to alter the perception of mental health care in Russia “During the Soviet Union era, therapy was often used as a tool of political oppression. Since then, Russia has seen major reforms in mental health care -- but stigmas and distrust for the practice still live on.” (2022, TED)

Mental Health Crisis Looms in Russia as Sanctions Fuel Drug Shortages, Job Losses (2022, The Moscow Times)

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'I Was Screaming': Disabled Russian Alleges Police Tortured Him To Confess To Burning Pro-War Banners. (2022, Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty)

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Russia and Belarus appeal against International Paralympic Committee suspension upheld - BBC Sport - but they remain banned from world championship events. (2023, BBC)

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Overview

Putin's mobilisation plans in tatters after officials enlist handicapped and blind people. (2022, Express)

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Before the 2022 invasion

A new book, The Broken Years: Russia's Disabled War Veterans, 1904–1921, which shows:

"the question of disabled veterans became bound up in broader political and social debates in the early twentieth century and fostered health care and social welfare policy. The experience of these 1.14 million war veterans reconfigured notions of heroism, sacrifice and patriotism while the period of 1915-1919 was marked by extensive political activism by disabled veterans." (2022, Cambridge University Press)

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Evacuating or Leaving Ukraine

Two Ukrainian men in wheelchairs were forcibly deported to Russia and subjected to months of abuse. Then they escaped. (2023, Business Insider)

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Situation in Ukraine

Russian Soldiers Dream Of Being Injured In Ukraine, 'Getting Rich' From Disability Pay (2022, International Business Times) I am sceptical of this dubiously sourced news. The publicly announced figures are in the region of €40,000 for families of soldiers who die, and almost €25,000 for those wounded. I question whether all those injured actually get that.

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