Doctors and the police: medical checks, psychiatric assessment, confidentiality

• In detention. If you are injured or unwell, ask for an ambulance. Interior Ministry instructions say the duty officer must call one, record how you were injured and, if you report violence, take your complaint (order 389, para 16). A temporary detention centre (IVS) checks you on arrival; injuries go into a report in three copies, one for you (order 950, para 5). Human rights groups advise also describing the beating in the report's 'explanations' field.
• In pre-trial detention. A medic examines you on arrival and records injuries. A complaint of injury leads to a report in three copies, one for you (Justice Ministry order 285, paras 14, 23). You or your lawyer can ask for a copy and an examination by another hospital; a refusal can be appealed to a prosecutor or court (Law 103-FZ, art. 24). Detention doctors have missed fractures later found by a clinic. Tell your lawyer about every injury.
• Clinics notify the police. For bruises, contusions, fractures and concussion, a clinic tells the police within a day, with your name, address and the likely cause (order 664n). People have then been summoned to the station where they were beaten. Get treatment anyway: your health comes first. OVD-Info advises having the circumstances recorded in your own words. You need not discuss your views or the protest to be treated. Decide with a lawyer whether to answer a summons.
• Documenting injuries. Ask for each injury to be described: type, size, colour, location. Human rights groups say a forensic medical bureau records injuries for a fee. Photograph them over several days, as bruises often appear after 24-48 hours: first with your face, then the body area, then close up with a ruler. Note witnesses' contacts. Copies of records are issued on written request, usually within 30 days, within a day for inpatients (Law 323-FZ, art. 22; order 789n).
• Medical confidentiality. Without your consent doctors disclose data to investigators, courts, prosecutors, the prison service and, for medical boards, enlistment offices (Law 323-FZ, art. 13). Unlike a lawyer, a doctor or psychologist can be questioned as a witness (CPC art. 56). Since 2025 police get data on people under psychiatric monitoring for a 'tendency to socially dangerous acts'; since March 2026 the Interior Ministry is a user of the federal patient register. Discuss your case with your lawyer.
• Psychiatric assessment. You and your lawyer may ask for another institution, add questions, bring a specialist and seek a repeat assessment (CPC arts 53, 58, 198, 207). Inpatient stays last up to 30 days, 90 at most (Law 73-FZ, art. 30). Compulsory treatment has no end date: courts extend it after six months, then yearly; a review can be sought any time (CC art. 102). OVD-Info counted 84 such people in political cases by 2025. Plan with a lawyer.
• Prison and military doctors. If a defendant has a serious illness from the official list (Government resolution 3), the lawyer applies with records from inpatient tests; a decision on examination is due the next working day. A prisoner can be released for illness (CC art. 81; resolution 54), but in 2025 prosecutors overturned such releases at least twice (OVD-Info). You can dispute a military medical board and get an independent examination (Law 323-FZ, art. 61).

Designations of organisations in this guide: OVD-Info (foreign agent, extremist, on Rosfinmonitoring list). Contacting them carries a risk: do not write from a phone that may be seized, and do not repost their materials.

current as of 26 September 2026. More: OVD-Info: I was beaten by police. What to do? (in Russian) (foreign agent, extremist, on Rosfinmonitoring list); OVD-Info: the ideal detainee's guide (in Russian) (foreign agent, extremist, on Rosfinmonitoring list); First Department: what to do if security forces beat you (in Russian) (foreign agent); Committee Against Torture team: beaten at a rally (in Russian) (foreign agent); Instructions for police duty stations (MVD order 389), paras 15-16; Temporary detention rules (MVD order 950), para 5: record of injuries; Temporary detention rules (MVD order 950), paras 123-125: medical checks; Justice Ministry order 285: medical care in pre-trial detention and prisons; Law 103-FZ, art. 24: medical examination for injuries, copy of the report; Health Ministry order 664n: when hospitals notify the police; Mediazona: Brateevo police station (2022, in Russian) (foreign agent); Mediazona: 'Doctors without borders' (2021, in Russian) (foreign agent); Law 323-FZ, art. 13: medical confidentiality; Law 323-FZ, art. 22: right to medical records; Health Ministry order 789n: deadlines for copies of medical records; Criminal Procedure Code, art. 56: who cannot be questioned as a witness; Criminal Procedure Code, art. 198: rights when an expert examination is ordered; Law 73-FZ, art. 30: time limits for inpatient examination; Criminal Code, art. 102: extension of compulsory treatment; The Insider: report on compulsory psychiatric treatment in political cases (29.05.2026, in Russian) (foreign agent, undesirable); OVD-Info: repression in Russia in 2025 (in Russian) (foreign agent, extremist, on Rosfinmonitoring list); Government resolution 3: illnesses that bar pre-trial detention; Government resolution 54: release of prisoners on health grounds; Law 323-FZ, art. 61: independent military medical examination; Plea for Conscience: health and military medical boards (in Russian); Joint Health and Interior Ministry order 56n/39: police and psychiatric outpatient monitoring; Government resolution 822: federal patient register; UN Committee against Torture: concluding observations on Russia, CAT/C/RUS/CO/6 (2018), paras 10-11