The proportion of the Russian population that is obese has reached 11%, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said during a meeting of the Council for the Development of Physical Education and Sports.
In his speech, Murashko noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin is probably “the most athletic president,” and therefore actively supports curbing smoking and alcoholism.
“We now have another area of struggle – obesity. Already 11% of the Russian population suffers from this,” Murashko emphasized.
In June, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova criticized Ministry of Health for the lack of a road map to combat obesity in children and adolescents. According to her, the number of obese people ranges from 35 million to 45 million people.
In March 2022, the All-Russian Patients’ Union (VSP) offered The Ministry of Health should include obesity in the list of socially significant diseases in order to include it in the state guarantee program, that is, make treatment free of charge. Svetlana Smetanina, an expert at the Union of Endocrinologists, noted that in the Russian Federation, about 50% of adults are overweight and obese; among children, every third child faces this problem.
