OREANDA-NEWS. On February 6, the State Duma of Russia ratified a Belarusian-Russian intergovernmental agreement on rendering medical assistance to Belarus citizens in Russia and Russian citizens in Belarus.

The agreement guarantees that citizens living in the other country will have equal rights to medical assistance, including free of charge treatment at state and municipal healthcare establishments of Russia and Belarus.

The citizens of Russia living in Belarus will get equal right to medial help including free-of-charge treatment in state medical establishments of Belarus. Russian citizens living temporarily in Belarus will be entitled to first aid and emergency aid as well as diagnostics and treatment of socially dangerous diseases.

Presenting the agreement for ratification, the chairman for the CIS policy and links with compatriots of the State Duma, Aleksei Ostrovsky, said that the document was signed “to ensure equal access to medical assistance in healthcare establishments of Belarus and Russia”.

The Deputy Minister for Healthcare and Social Development of Russia, Vladimir Starodubov, said that the agreement takes into account all peculiarities of the medical insurance systems of the two countries.

The agreement was signed in St. Petersburg in January 2006. The document is valid for five years and can be automatically prolonged. Belarus has ratified the document as well.