WHO regional head visits Moscow for meeting with Lavrov. VIDEO
WHO Regional Director Hans Kluge held a meeting in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and shook his hand.
This was announced by People`s Deputy and chairman of the Committee on National Health Mykhailo Radutskyi on his Telegram channel, Censor.NET reports.
"This visit looks like the first step towards Russia's return to the international community. The Kremlin's propaganda media are already presenting it as "recognition" of Russia as a WHO partner," he said.
On 18 June, Mykhailo Radutskyi and his colleagues in the Verkhovna Rada stated that visits by WHO representatives to Russia were unacceptable.
Iryna Nemirovych — co-founder and director of UHC, co-founder of the Tabletochky Charitable Foundation, and former Director General of the Strategic Planning and European Integration Directorate at the Ministry of Health from 2017 to 2019 — stated on her Instagram: "When we worked at the ministry, we did quite a lot politically at the European level to help Hans Kluge, who now heads the WHO Regional Office for Europe, win the election. And he vowed, swore his love for Ukraine and eternal support. So what?"
According to Radutskyi, the reason for this visit may be the financial difficulties of the WHO due to the refusal of some countries to fund the organisation. Such a meeting may indicate a willingness to compromise even with those who flout humanitarian law in order to preserve donor funds.
Earlier, Ukrainski Novyny conducted an investigation entitled: "Who sponsors the WHO and what do Russia and China have to do with it?". The article mentions how the head of the organisation, Dr Tedros Adanom Ghebreyesus, met with Vladimir Putin during a WHO meeting in Moscow and never spared pra ise for the Russian dictator.
In 2020-2021, the Russian Federation paid $55 million to the WHO budget. The WHO European Office for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases was located in Moscow, but was moved to Copenhagen only in May 2023. Russia paid the WHO $5.6 million a year to "host" the office.
Russia is not the only "friendly" country for the WHO; China is another influential partner of the organisation. Investigations by The Times, Foreign Policy, and The Washington Post have shown that China was behind the election of Ghebreyesus to the WHO leadership. In particular, Chinese diplomats organised support for his candidacy in third world countries, especially in Africa. To this day, the head of the WHO calls China a "friend".
China pays the lion's share of contributions to the organisation's budget. For example, in March 2020, the WHO Director-General publicly thanked the Chinese government for $20 million in support to combat the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, and then thanked it again for an additional $30 million.
