Meeting with Head of the Federal Medical-Biological Agency Veronika Skvortsova

The Head of the FMBA briefed the President on the agency’s measures to develop Russia’s blood service and promote blood donation, as well as on its work in occupational, maritime and sports medicine.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: I suggest we discuss several topics. We already have the blood service, occupational medicine and sports medicine, as well as anything else you consider appropriate and necessary to bring up for discussion today.

Please, go ahead.

Head of the Federal Medical-Biological Agency Veronika Skvortsova: Thank you very much, Mr President.

The Federal Medical-Biological Agency is the national coordinator of the blood service. It is responsible not only for collecting blood and meeting the country’s needs for blood and its components, but also for ensuring their safety, preventing transfusion-transmitted infections, and developing all the necessary innovations in transfusion medicine.

Given the importance of this area, particularly in recent years, we have placed considerable emphasis on promoting blood donation as a special culture of public service. Together with virtually all federal executive bodies, civil society organisations and youth associations, we are implementing a wide range of initiatives aimed at promoting blood donation.

As a result, since 2020 we have increased the number of donors by more than 20 percent, while also raising the average number of donations per donor to 2.3. As a result, we now have more than 1.5 million donors a year, and the number of donations has exceeded 3.5 million.

This has enabled us to increase whole-blood collection by 47 percent since 2020. We now collect more than 2.7 million litres of whole blood a year. Blood plasma collection has also increased by 37 percent over the same period, to more than one million litres.

Vladimir Putin: How many donors do we have now?

Veronika Skvortsova: More than 1.5 million people. But the number in our database is considerably higher – more than 12 million.

Vladimir Putin: My father was a blood donor for many years.

Veronika Skvortsova: We are attaching particular importance to the creation of a strategic reserve of blood and its components. Compared to 2022, we have managed to increase the strategic reserve by more than 150 percent and have now reached a total of one million litres of all blood components, including rare groups and factors. This allows us to dispatch a very substantial volume at any one time, should the need arise in an emergency.

To ensure the rapid distribution of blood of the required groups and factors, we are establishing a comprehensive network of major interregional storage and redistribution centres. This year, such centres are being joined by hubs in Kursk and Rostov-on-Don. These are large storage facilities, each with a capacity of over 100,000 litres, enabling us to supply all neighbouring regions of the country at great speed. In addition, next year, a similar storage facility will be commissioned in Mariupol.

I would also like to highlight that the Agency’s haematology research centres developed a unique product in 2023 and 2024. This is a plastic container that allows blood plasma to be lyophilised – that is, freeze-dried – under fully aseptic conditions, thereby preserving all its inherent properties. It is not a substitute; it is the plasma itself but contained in a virtually weightless pouch. Its shelf life is five years, and it requires no cold chain whatsoever, meaning it can be used at any temperature. We have also begun production of universal lyophilised plasma that can be transfused in emergency situations and field conditions, when it is difficult to determine the casualty’s blood group.

Last year alone, we delivered over 7,000 units of lyophilised plasma to the Defence Ministry, and in the first half of 2026 we have already supplied more than 13,000 units. This is truly a product that saves lives on the front line, bringing people out of shock and helping to manage severe bleeding.

This year, however, we have gone even further. We have succeeded in creating pooled lyophilised cryoprecipitate – that is, we have concentrated four plasma pouches into a single pouch of highly concentrated precipitate, containing four times as much of the blood-clotting factor fibrinogen and, in the most challenging situations, providing virtually immediate relief.

It is important to note that, until 2022, the entire system – the entire blood service of the Russian Federation – operated using imported equipment. From 2022 to 2025, we completely replicated the entire range of seven devices required to support the whole blood transfusion chain. These include cytapheresis systems, all sterile line connectors, blood component extractors, thrombomixers, freezers, and red blood cell processors. The final device – for virus inactivation – was developed in 2025; this makes it possible to completely eliminate the risk of transfusion-transmitted infections. This entire range was developed by the FMBA research institutes together with our industrial partner, the Rostec State Corporation, as part of the import substitution programme.

Mr President, in 2021, you instructed us to significantly increase the procurement of blood plasma for industrial use. At that time, domestically produced blood plasma-derived medicines accounted for only 10 percent of the market, with the remainder supplied through imports. Since then, we have established six major plasma collection centres near facilities that manufacture plasma-derived medicines. As a result, industrial plasma procurement increased 26-fold, from 30 tonnes in 2021 to 780 tonnes in 2025. This volume now fully meets production needs for essential plasma-derived medicines, including albumins and human immunoglobulins.

We have also developed and introduced standards for all key human immunoglobulins, including those used against tick-borne encephalitis, hepatitis B, staphylococcal infections, tetanus, and Rh incompatibility. These medicines had traditionally been imported, primarily from Western Europe. By the end of last year, domestic supply had reached 100 percent for all of these medicines, with the exception of anti-Rh immunoglobulin, for which domestic production covered only 30 percent of demand. This issue, however, has already been resolved this year.

The final two medicines that are not yet produced domestically are now in the closing stages of development. We are therefore nearing complete self-sufficiency not only in blood and blood components, but also in plasma-derived medicines.

We can now confirm that the country’s needs are being fully met. Military and civilian hospitals, as well as clinics under regional, federal, and other departmental authorities, have all the necessary supplies.

I would also like to specifically mention bone marrow donation. In 2022, you instructed us to establish a unified federal registry. Before that, 11 local registries had operated independently for ten years, accumulating a total of 112,000 potential donors. The unified registry became operational on September 1, 2022. Since then, we have increased the number of registered bone marrow and haematopoietic stem cell donors almost fivefold, reaching 546,000 as of today.

Vladimir Putin: What are they called? Haematopoietic?

Veronika Skvortsova: Haematopoietic, yes. These are the blood-forming stem cells found in bone marrow. As a result, the registry can now identify fully or partially compatible donors in 97 percent of cases. The number of transplants has doubled over the same period, while the number involving unrelated donors from the Russian registry has tripled. Such donors now account for 77 percent of the total. We are making steady progress and continue to actively develop all of these areas.

Mr President, the second issue I would like to address is industrial medicine.

Vladimir Putin: You mean occupational medicine, and there is also maritime medicine, right?

Veronika Skvortsova: For almost 80 years the Agency has been working on protecting the health of employees, primarily those working for strategic enterprises with special working conditions. This includes the atomic and space sectors, as well as defence manufacturing, etc.

Today, the healthcare system operates within a new paradigm with a de facto transition from treating patients to offering medical support to healthy people. We took this into account by devising a new occupational medicine development strategy in 2022 for a five year term, i.e., from 2023 until 2027, and created a model integrated health centre which basically brought together not only all types of preventive care, but also work-related diseases, professional assessments, as well as a centre for cognitive, psychological and emotional well-being, psychophysiological laboratories, a rehabilitation centre, and a centre for reproductive health and family well-being. This means that there is now a plethora of modules under a single umbrella.

Importantly, every centre operates a network of digital health posts at the manufacturing sites within a single digital contour. Since 2023, which is a short period of time, we have created 60 integrated occupational health centres in closed administrative-territorial entities, science cities and satellite cities of nuclear power plants, as well as 334 digital health posts. We expect to achieve our target indicators next year.

I would like to note that these digital health posts are located on the premises and include medical stations where employees can undergo medical check-ups on their own and without any assistance before or after their shifts. In the workshops, we offer the so-called health outposts. Employees can use them during their breaks to go through a rapid medical checkup. It takes two minutes to check 140 health parameters and use telemedicine solutions for getting in touch with a doctor or a paramedic. There are also interactive stands on occupational safety, and options for having personalised health assistants in case of any risk factors. This provides for offering individual rehabilitation services and health monitoring opportunities when changing shifts.

In fact, as part of this programme we have created a registry of employees. It includes a special section for those dealing with harmful and hazardous factors. There is a digital profile for every employee. This registry enables us to be very responsive and precise in managing and preventing risks. We pay special attention to critical personnel. In less than four years, which is a short period of time, the overall incidence of diseases decreased by 16 percent at our strategic enterprises, while mortality was down by 15 percent. There was also a reduction in short-term incapacity for work and fewer people becoming disabled. The duration of active employment increased by 15 percent, while employers benefited from a 21 percent decline in economic costs.

The Government’s social bloc carried out a very thorough review of these results. In keeping with Tatyana Golikova’s instructions, we drafted methodological guidelines for all Russian employers. The Russian trilateral commission approved them in September 2025. Together with the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the Union of Machine Builders, we are currently scaling up this methodology to a national level. So far, 122 companies in 35 regions have joined this effort even if this is happening outside of the immediate purview of the Federal Medical-Biological Agency.

Of course, we are convinced that this is a very important domain, since the health of employees has a direct bearing on child and elderly health, as well as all economic and any other indicators.

This is why we are working closely with Alexander Shokhin and Sergei Chemezov, and all others.

A cornerstone of industrial medicine is, of course, maritime medicine. The Agency’s 36 centres are dedicated to the health of seafarers and personnel working in maritime and coastal infrastructure.

Following a directive from Maritime Board Chairman Nikolai Patrushev, the National Centre for the Health Protection of Seafarers [and Divers] was established in St Petersburg in 2025, hosted by the North-Western District Centre of the Federal Medical-Biological Agency. This centre has since acted as the methodological and coordinating hub for the entire network. In line with industrial medicine practice, a seafarer registry was subsequently created. Currently, 45 percent of all seafarers in the country are registered, representing 45,000 individual records, along with divers and crew members of the nuclear fleet. The electronic seafarer health passport, together with a unified system for certification and clearance to sail, has now become part of everyday operations.

Discussions at the Maritime Board have focused on how to include the sailors who are not covered by the Federal Medical-Biological Agency but instead receive services from a large number of private providers…

Vladimir Putin: To add them to the register?

Veronika Skvortsova: Yes. Bringing them into the system would enable us to manage it comprehensively and maintain a clear overview of activity across all river and sea basins.

In 2023, a specialised centre was opened in Murmansk, based at our Pirogov Multipurpose Centre for Arctic Medicine. Given the strategic importance of the Northern Sea Route and the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor, this centre now provides effective medical cover for all eight icebreakers, fixed offshore platforms, floating drilling rigs, and the floating nuclear power plant Akademik Lomonosov. It also maintains close contact with the teams that staff the centre itself, the medical teams deployed on these mobile structures, the 24‑hour psychological support unit, and the radiation, chemical and biological safety centre.

In partnership with the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and in line with the Northern Sea Route development plan, we are establishing a comprehensive network of emergency rescue centres. The Ministry is responsible for its own component, while we are creating emergency medical rescue centres equipped with full operating theatres, intensive care units, and infection-control modules (including isolation facilities for use as needed), as well as all the necessary infrastructure to enable patient evacuation. The first such centre opened in Pevek, Chukotka, in January 2025 and has now been operational for 18 months. The second centre opened in Sabetta in April of this year. Over the next two years, we plan to open further centres in Dikson and Khatanga, Krasnoyarsk Territory, and in Tiksi, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). These centres are fully integrated into our network and operate under the overall coordination of the Murmansk Arctic Centre.

In summary, the maritime medicine network is expanding, well-coordinated and centrally managed, and we will be reporting on its progress to the Maritime Board.

And, if you allow me, Mr President, sports medicine is an essential and rapidly developing area.

In November 2024, during a meeting of the Council for the Development of Physical Culture and Sports, you issued an instruction to create a single methodology for the development of sports medicine and to build Russia’s first national sports medicine centre. It was established in May 2025 by a Presidential executive order and operates successfully to this day. Separately, we created its children’s arm based at the Centre for Children and Adolescents of the Federal Medical-Biological Agency.

The centre has a unique structure, its core represented by a big scientific and analytical complex that has created cross-disciplinary medical-biological research teams for all major sports. They cooperate with complex research teams of the Ministry of Sport. This has made it possible to shift the focus of their work directly to the training platforms of the Ministry of Sport – namely, ten training sites for our national teams. They do their main job on the sidelines with the help of digital wearables throughout the training process itself.

This work turned out to be unique and highly significant. We are currently working with 21 sports federations. As a result, some advanced methods have been discovered to drastically increase performance in sports while maintaining athletes’ good health.

In group sports, a new methodology has been invented for widening peripheral vision, to provide stereoscopic vision with simultaneous tracking of multiple objects. We have developed a methodology for sharply increasing starting speed in track-and-field athletics, and to increase pre-jumping speed in high jump, to achieve clearance.

Nutritional science and psychology are a separate topic. I would like to note that applying these methods over a period of two months allows for raising our athletes’ national ranking from the 40^th place to the second or first. The same is true for children, considering that even in national teams, 55 percent of members are underage – and in some sports, over 70 percent.

Vladimir Putin: Is it possible to determine if a child has an aptitude for professional sports?

Veronika Skvortsova: On one hand, there is an aptitude because we currently do molecular, biological and genetic tests for all athletes. But for various ethical considerations, we never give any strict recommendations and let the children develop naturally because their bodies have high plasticity. We help them grow and try to guide them very carefully.

The essential body of information about each athlete is contained in their electronic health passport which since 2025 has been supplemented by all necessary cross-disciplinary blocks and dynamic support for the training process itself.

Our digital system is integrated with the Sports Ministry’s My Sport digital system, and the Healthcare Ministry’s digital system. We essentially build a pool of data, as they call it nowadays, which makes it possible, using AI, to identify and overcome risk factors and factors that limit athletic performance for each athlete.

In view of your instruction to expand this practice across regions – primarily, to regional teams as the closest assets to national team reserves, and subsequently broader, to school leagues and university sports, or essentially to all organised sports that exist in the Russian regions, a Federal Law was adopted in December 2025 that amends the Law On Basic Principles of the Citizens’ Health Protection in the Russian Federation, that authorises the Federal Medical-Biological Agency to develop single methodological guidelines for the entire country to be used for updating regional medical-biological support protocols. The task was fulfilled quite fast. Now, over 70 regions work with us in the same methodological context.

A Federal Law was adopted on developing a state information system on Russian athletes’ health, including digital training permits. As instructed by Dmitry Chernyshenko, the first 52 regions have been integrated into this system, and we are working very actively with them, to help them develop their methodologies. We hope this work will be completed by July 1, 2027.

The work on the Strategy for Sports Medicine until 2030 and the subsequent period to 2036 has been fully completed. You instructed the Government and the Federal Medical-Biological Agency to develop the strategy back in December 2025. The Government instructed us to coordinate this work starting from municipalities, regions and federations, to ensure succession in athletic training from school leagues upwards.

Mr President, I would like to conclude by saying that we can see now how much sports medicine has contributed to the results we have today. We are very grateful for the teamwork with the Ministry of Sport, the Olympic and Paralympic committees. Starting with the last Paralympic Games, all of the athletes under our personal guidance returned with medals.

We really hope that, in view of the current changes and returns to international competitions, we will try to ensure that medicine can help maximise the athletes’ potential.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much.

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