Estonian minister attacks WHO Europe chief for Russian visit

Estonia’s social affairs minister lambasted the World Health Organization’s Europe chief for meeting with Russia’s foreign minister when the former Soviet country has frequently attacked Ukraine’s health facilities.

Karmen Joller, who is also a doctor, said she is “profoundly dismayed” at WHO’s Hans Kluge meeting with Sergey Lavrov, given that Russia has “systematically violated international humanitarian law,” including more than 1,700 attacks on health care facilities, she posted on X.

While she noted that Kluge pressed Lavrov on the “urgent need to ensure full respect for international humanitarian principles — including the obligation of all parties to refrain from attacks on health care facilities,” she questioned: “But does anyone genuinely believe that Russia is unaware of these obligations — or that its repeated violations are anything but deliberate?”

According to Joller, Kluge’s Russia visit “risks legitimizing a regime that deliberately targets the very values WHO is meant to defend.”

Joller was reacting to a post from Kluge, who is regional director of WHO Europe, pictured shaking hands with Lavrov alongside a list of the topics they had discussed: from the pandemic deal to HIV prevention, as well as the obligation not to attack health care facilities.

In a separate post Kluge shared that he’d also chaired a meeting on HIV in Moscow, alongside the country’s Deputy Health Minister Andrey Plutnitskiy.

Kluge defended his visit to Russia, telling POLITICO the objective of his mission was, “among other things, to advocate for the protection of health care facilities and the upholding of humanitarian principles in all contexts.” He told Russian officials that health care facilities and workers must never be targets.

Kluge also said WHO remains “deeply committed to supporting Ukraine's health system and its people,” and has visited the country five times since the 2022 full-scale Russian invasion, speaking frankly about the devastating attacks on health.

With Russia accounting for more than 50 percent of all new HIV cases in the WHO European region, Kluge said it was his “duty” to stand up for the most marginalized — including the LGBTQI community, sex workers, migrants, people who use drugs, and the homeless — in chairing the HIV meeting.

Open and constructive engagement with all 53 European member countries “is the only path to securing regional health security and, ultimately, to protecting lives,” Kluge said. “My visit to the Russian Federation was guided by this imperative.”