Russia Bans Doctors, Medics From Leaving Country

Russian doctors and medical workers have been handed letters from authorities telling them not to leave the country, according to local news outlets.

St. Petersburg's healthcare committee told hospital employees in a letter that they should not leave the country for work-related trips for "security reasons," Russia's state-run news agency Tass reported.

"Until further notice, heads and employees of organizations subordinate to the health committee must refrain from business trips to foreign countries, including the territories of CIS member states," the letter signed by healthcare committee chairman Dmitry Lisovets said.

The document refers to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a Russia-led political bloc consisting of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with the heads of intelligence of CIS states at the Constantine Palace near St. Petersburg on his 70th birthday on October 7.

Medical workers and doctors were also told that travel in a personal capacity would require permission from a city governor, and if approved, would only be permitted to CIS countries.

Nurses and doctors were urged to sign "a paper not to leave the Russian Federation, including the CIS countries," local news outlet Fontanka reported.

The committee didn't elaborate on why the measure was being implemented.

It comes as defense officials said 300,000 Russians would be called up to fight in Ukraine as part of Putin's partial mobilization decree, which he announced on September 21.

After Putin announced his mobilization order, Russia's parliament said that about 3,000 doctors and medical workers could be called up.

It said mobilized medical workers would be graduates of military medical universities with training in field medicine, doctors with combat experience and graduates of civilian medical universities who specialize in surgery, anesthesiology and traumatology.

"Medics who have neither the appropriate training nor experience in combat conditions will not be required, they are not subject to mobilization now," an official said.

"Further, medical workers will not be mobilized from those rural medical institutions in which there will be no one to work. We cannot expose our own healthcare system, leave citizens without medical care, and everyone understands this."

According to independent Russian news outlet Meduza and human rights activists, doctors have already started to be handed subpoenas from military registration and enlistment offices.

Meduza also reported that some employees of state clinics in Moscow and St. Petersburg have received "reservations" from mobilization—meaning they are exempt from serving.

The institutions where employees have been handed such exemptions include the Dmitry Rogachev National Medical Research Center, the Pirogov National Medical Center, the Petrov National Medical Research Center of Oncology and the Central Clinical Hospital of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, where high-ranking Russian officials are treated, according to the news outlet.

At least 370,000 Russians have fled to neighboring nations, including Georgia, Finland, Kazakhstan and Mongolia to avoid being conscripted. That's more than the total number that defense officials said would be enlisted in the military.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced on October 4 that more than 200,000 had been enlisted so far.

The Russian defense ministry has previously said that mobilization does not impose restrictions on the movement of citizens.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's foreign and defense ministries for comment.