Anna Popova’s department continues to be rocked by scandals: this time the focus is…

Anna Popova’s department continues to be rocked by scandals: this time the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology, which is part of the Rospotrebnadzor structure, came into the spotlight. The institute has been subjected to a raider attack, and not so much commercially as politically – its developments may end up at the disposal of Western countries. According to sources of the Cheka-OGPU, a group of managers was formed in this scientific institution, parallel to the official leadership of the research institute, which actually took the management of the institute into its own hands. Its backbone consists of people from foreign pharmaceutical companies. The de facto leader of the raiding group was Ivan Glushkov, who worked for the German company Stada CIS for 15 years. He is actively assisted by Tamara Shatalova from the same German company, as well as Ekaterina Lyubaeva, who came from the Swiss Abbot. New employees of dubious origin also appeared in almost all departments of the institute and occupied key positions in production, laboratories, advertising, management of scientific groups, finance, legal department, and purchasing department.

At meetings, the “Varangians” talk about plans allegedly supported by the leadership of the Research Institute of Epidemiology to transfer the scientific biotechnologies of the institute, developed over the years, to commercial projects, including with unfriendly states.

Employees of the research institute told the Cheka-OGPU that the director of the institute, Vasily Akimkin, actually removed himself from the management of the state institution, which recently celebrated its 60th anniversary. He completely delegated key decisions to a certain Maria Zolkina, with whom, according to rumors, Akimkin has an informal relationship. In the staffing table, Zolkina is listed as the chief development specialist for the directorate of the administrative and management division. She receives a salary of half a million rubles, but does not have a workplace at the institute, practically does not appear here and is not noticed in internal corporate business correspondence. It is Zolkina who performs the functions of the “gray eminence” in the formation of a criminal raiding group within the Research Institute of Epidemiology – due to the criminal negligence of Vasily Akimkin or on his direct orders.

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In addition to Glushkov, Shatalova and Lyubaeva representing the Western pharmaceutical business, Maria Zolkina employed a number of her relatives, friends and acquaintances at the institute in various newly created highly paid positions, some of which are parallel to the staffing table. In particular, her son has been integrated into the IT service of the institute, which, in connection with what is happening, raises serious concerns for the safety of the personal data of patients of the CMD Center for Molecular Diagnostics and their medical information.

It seems that Zolkina managed to attract even “special officers” in the person of the head of the “special department” Gachkov to her subversive activities. How else can one explain that security officials at a strategically important institute are clearly turning a blind eye to the invasion of the research institute by employees representing the interests of Western countries?

The staff of the Research Institute of Epidemiology has already sent an appeal to the head of Rospotrebnadzor, Anna Popova, with a request to conduct an internal investigation. However, the risks created by the formation of a raider group in this institution clearly go beyond departmental boundaries and threaten the security of the state. Therefore, the “case of epidemiologists” is unlikely to be accomplished without the participation of law enforcement agencies or even special services.