Palace and Old Toilets: Suprun Describes Bogatyreva-Era Health Ministry

The acting minister accused her predecessor of irresponsibility and greed.

According to acting Health Minister Uliana Suprun, her predecessor Raisa Bogatyreva, who recently returned to Kyiv, cared nothing about the ministry and strove only for her own enrichment.

The current Health Ministry head said this on Wednesday, August 28, told on her Facebook page.

“The first months ... I was constantly told stories about how Raisa Bogatyreva organized the work, – Suprun wrote. – How she never left her ‘minister’s office complex’, which looked like a palace. Meanwhile, the other part of the ministry was in critical condition, with old toilets and shabby walls.”

From these stories, according to Suprun, she also learned that when Bogatyreva walked the corridors of the agency with her bodyguards, those nearby had to stand at attention. New head of the ministry was also told about drug procurement that had been carried out unprofessionally.

According to Suprun, Bogatyreva allegedly, even while already minister, covered a scheme for purchasing vaccines and tuberculin with taxpayers’ money from her son’s company. The anti-vaccination campaign that began in Ukraine increased doubts about the effectiveness and safety of vaccines and led to a decline in vaccination rates. And in 2007–2012, Bogatyreva was secretary of the NSDC and “failed to put the country’s national security above her own enrichment.”

Uliana Suprun also said that for the last 3 years her team and the changes have been constantly attacked by people who, under Bogatyreva, held positions as chief specialists of the Health Ministry of Ukraine or were simply “close” to her. The agency head named four surnames without giving first names, probably meaning:

• cardiac surgeon, director of the Institute of Heart Borys Todurov
• head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Bogomolets National Medical University and chief external specialist of the Health Ministry in infectious diseases Olha Holubovska
  
• psychiatrist, executive secretary of the Association of Psychiatrists of Ukraine, former political prisoner and dissident Semen Gluzman
  
• pediatric hematologist, former head of the Center of Oncohematology at Okhmatdyt Svitlana Donska
  

“You will not find criticism of the activities of Ukraine’s Health Minister during the Yanukovych era from these and similar people. They were satisfied with the status quo and the opportunity to ‘influence’ important appointments, procurement nomenclature, or simply sit next to a top official. The person who coordinated drug procurement as Bogatyreva’s adviser, – Dmytro Podturkin – now calmly works as an assistant to the future deputy chairman of the new committee on health care, Valeriy Dubil,” Suprun said.

The acting minister called Raisa Bogatyreva’s return to Ukraine a signal of the start of a new stage in the fight for the health and safety of Ukrainians. Suprun claims that Bogatyreva’s “followers and partners” in recent years engaged in sabotage of systemic changes in the sector, “where they are used to ‘agreeing’ on everything.

In support of her post, Uliana Suprun published a meme in which several cockroaches rejoice at the return of “Raisa.”

In turn, psychiatrist Semen Gluzman, one of the people Suprun named as Bogatyreva’s associate, stated the day before that the acting minister “understands the inevitability of her resignation” and simply “very much wants to remain in the Health Ministry’s chair forever.” He claims that there is a lot of compromising material on Suprun and her team of reformers “both in documents of the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine and in operational sources of the SBU, and in other, quite competent sources.”

The doctor also stated that Suprun’s lobbyists in Ukraine, the US and Canada pursue purely mercenary goals, and appealed to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, saying that he is ready to declare a hunger strike.

“I know it was not you who brought Uliana Suprun to power in Ukraine. It was not you who allowed such mockery of law and common sense in our country. Nevertheless, it is you who are today our president and bear responsibility for what is happening in Ukraine. ... I want to warn you, Volodymyr Oleksandrovych: if you yield to the pressure of internal and foreign scoundrels, I intend to declare a hunger strike of protest in the square outside your presidential office,” said Semen Gluzman.

Earlier, Raisa Bogatyreva, health minister and NSDC secretary during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych, flew from Minsk to Kyiv, where she was detained by Ukrainian border guards and placed in an isolation ward.