MOSCOW. Dec 29 (Interfax) - All inmates in Russia's penal colonies will probably be provided with medical insurance in 2013, Oleg Korshunov, the head of the finance and economics department of the Federal Service for Enforcement of Punishments (FSIN), said.
"The Russian government is now looking at a very serious issue, medical services provided to convicts," Korshunov said in an interview with Interfax.
Korshunov recalled that Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets has recently held a meeting "addressing compulsory medical insurance for every convict so that they can receive any qualified medical assistance if they need it."
"The Health Ministry, the Justice Ministry, and we were ordered to work out and substantiate before March 1, 2013 a special tariff for prisoners - some 4,000 rubles - which will be paid by the state," Korshunov said.
Korshunov said it will make it possible for prisoners to get treatment from highly qualified specialists in difficult situations. "FSIN, of course, has its hospitals, but we can't perform some surgeries, for example, heart surgeries," he said.
The issue of medical services provided to convicts drew broad public response after the death in the Moscow Matrosskaya Tishina detention facility in 2009 of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who was arrested on suspicion of tax crimes.
On Friday, the Moscow Tverskoi Court acquitted Dmitry Kratov, former deputy head of the detention facility, who was charged with negligence that was linked to Magnitsky's death.
A complete text of Korshunov's interview will be published at interfax.ru.