1. Anastasia Yevgenyeva Vasilyeva is a Russian ophthalmologist and human rights activist who was the personal doctor to opposition politician Alexei Navalny.
23 Facts About Anastasia Vasilyeva
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Anastasia Vasilyeva studied medicine at the First Moscow State Medical University, graduating in 2006, and completed graduate studies in ophthalmology in 2013.
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Anastasia Vasilyeva worked at the Research Institute of Eye Diseases as well as teaching at her alma mater before entering private practice in 2018.
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Anastasia Vasilyeva has a son and a daughter and lives in Moscow.
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Anastasia Vasilyeva first treated Alexei Navalny in 2017 after green dye was thrown into one of his eyes in 2017 by pro-Russian government supporters.
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Anastasia Vasilyeva subsequently reached out to Navalny for support after her mother, alongside other senior ophthalmologists, were fired from the First Moscow State Medical University in 2018.
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On 20 August 2020, after Navalny was poisoned, Anastasia Vasilyeva accompanied his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, to the hospital in Omsk where he was being held, though they were originally barred from seeing him.
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Anastasia Vasilyeva later appeared on RTVI and publicly stated her belief that Navalny was experiencing organophosphate poisoning, and that doctors in Omsk had prevented her from seeing him for two days to stop her finding evidence of this.
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Anastasia Vasilyeva subsequently founded the Alliance of Doctors, an independent medical trade union, which became allied with Navalny's Trade Union and the ACF.
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Anastasia Vasilyeva later went on to ally the Alliance of Doctors with other opposition political parties, including the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and Yabloko.
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In January 2021, during a crackdown on supporters of Navalny following his arrest after returning to Russia from Germany, a video clip of Anastasia Vasilyeva playing "Fur Elise" on her piano while her flat was raided by police went viral on social media.
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Anastasia Vasilyeva went on to take part in a public protest calling on Navalny's release, and was placed under house arrest for breaching COVID-19 restrictions, though her arrest was reversed.
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On 18 February 2021, alongside several other doctors, Anastasia Vasilyeva protested outside the corrective colony where Navalny was being held in Pokrov, requesting to treat Navalny in response to reports that he was suffering from back problems and numbness.
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Anastasia Vasilyeva arranged a mass rally outside the colony on 6 April 2021, during which she was detained.
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In September 2021, Anastasia Vasilyeva publicly broke ties with Navalny and the ACL, accusing Leonid Volkov, Ivan Zhdanov, and Maria Pevchikh of having abandoned her and the Doctors Association in Russia after all three fled the country.
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Anastasia Vasilyeva's comments were controversial, with some claiming she was put under pressure by United Russia to criticise Navalny ahead of legislative elections, comparing her to Belarusian activist Roman Protasevich, who spoke out in favour of the Belarusian government after being detained by security forces.
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Anastasia Vasilyeva gained prominence as a vocal critic of the Russian government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Anastasia Vasilyeva accused the government of understating the severity of the pandemic, and of failing to implement the appropriate infrastructure to the Russian healthcare system to enable it to successfully manage the disease.
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Anastasia Vasilyeva was sceptical of publicly published figures showing relatively low numbers of positive cases in the country, stating that such figures did not take into account delays at processing COVID-19 tests at the country's one testing facility in Siberia.
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Anastasia Vasilyeva fundraised for personal protective equipment for medical staff across Russia, and co-ordinated the delivery of PPE to regional hospitals.
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Anastasia Vasilyeva criticised the Russian government for sending PPE supplies to countries such as the United States despite high demand in Russian medical facilities.
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Anastasia Vasilyeva was charged with breaking quarantine restrictions in Moscow, and the following day received additional charges for refusing to leave her car while it was being towed, and for refusing arrest on that charge.
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Anastasia Vasilyeva was made to pay fines for all three offences.