Russian Resorts Best in the World According to Russian Health Minister - 8 October, 2002

'Russian resorts are the best in the world,' according to Russian Health Minister Yuri Shevchenko. As a Rosbalt correspondent reports, this is how the minister assessed the current state of the national health resort industry on Tuesday at the Health Resort 2002 All-Russian forum.

The minister said that as part of his work he has visited many foreign resorts and has witnessed himself that Russian resorts (in comparison with foreign resorts) have high quality methods of treatment. 'Foreign resorts are attractive but they are far inferior to Russian resorts from the point of view of health treatment,' said Shevchenko. 'The money that Russian people spend in Turkey for example could provide them with full health treatment in Russia.'

The minister also commented on the different patterns of ownership of health resorts at the present time. He said that people should not be 'put off' by this and emphasised 'the resorts will remain as national property and the task of the Health Ministry is to make sure that they remain financially accessible to the majority of Russians. We respect the rights of the resort owners but they will use methods of health treatment as prescribed by the Russian Health Ministry'.