Mass removal of internal organs from prisoners and hostages: the scenario of Chechnya may be repeated in Ukraine

This study was compiled by Umar Khanbiev in 2003, then the CRI’s Minister of Health, specifically for publication on the Caucasus-Center website.

This material is important with the Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the receipt of reports of Russian atrocities against peaceful Ukrainians.

Chechnya has experienced horrific events and is still under intense pressure from terror and violence. According to various estimates, between 100,000 and 150,000 Russian troops are stationed in Chechnya.

Despite the plight of the Russian aggressors in Ukraine and the failure of their blitzkrieg plan, Moscow does not dare to send troops from Chechnya to Ukraine, fearing surprises from the Chechen people.

Only a few battalions of occupiers were sent from Chechnya to go to war against the Ukrainians. Instead of the Russians, Moscow has used puppet formations – the Kadyrovites, while the Russian command prefers to keep its regular troops in Chechnya.

By this fact alone, Chechnya is giving Ukraine serious support, attracting at least 50% of the number of Russian groups currently fighting in Ukraine.

This material should draw the attention of the Ukrainian authorities and special services to the threat of mass seizure of organs from Ukrainian prisoners and hostages by the Russian occupiers, as was the case in Chechnya. It is possible that this is already happening with Ukrainians who were captured by the occupiers, many of whom were deported to Russia, since there is no verified information about their fate.

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Removal of internal organs from hostages in Chechnya

From the first “finds” in Chechnya of the bodies of young people with removed organs, who were detained at checkpoints and during the so-called “sweeps”, and with rumors of bloody business of the Russian command – trade in hostages for transplantation – I closely follow every case of this nature.

Admittedly, as a doctor who has an idea of ​​the technology of providing and implementing the transplant process, I was very skeptical of such reports.

Not, of course, that I doubted the ethical adequacy of such barbarism to the moral and ethical qualities of the Russian leadership. Given the technical difficulties of the process of organ harvesting and transplantation, I thought that this was impossible in Chechnya.

But indisputable facts – bodies with removed organs – indicated that young people taken hostage by the Russian occupiers were no doubt subjected to medical removal of organs, possibly for sale and transplantation, while they were still alive. And I began to ask questions more and more often.

The “path” of the organ from donor to recipient is quite complex and time-consuming process, which includes a thorough examination of the donor with tests for tissue compatibility, organ collection, conservation, transportation and transplantation.

Therefore, in order to carry out the process of harvesting and transporting organs, at least a medical institution with a hospital, medical staff and laboratory is needed, not to mention other support services.

It is incredibly difficult to hide such an institution in the basements of the destroyed houses of Johar, which is run by Chechen fighters at night. If so, where is this institution and how can its activities be kept secret?

In addition, it is known that Russian groups operating in Chechnya are arranging bloody clashes with each other even over a less profitable “business.” When, for example, in a dispute over control of oil wells or in the distribution of household treasure looted in the homes of civilians, bloody massacres are staged, killing each other by the hundreds.

Thanks to their greed, we become aware of secret incentive orders from the Russian command that legitimize crimes against civilians.

If the reality of the existence of this bloody “business” is not a myth, then how is the secrecy around it maintained? Why do institutions operating in extremely secretive conditions leave traces of their activities in the form of corpses dumped near settlements and roads with removed organs?

Maybe one of the Russians wants to inform the Chechens about the terrible crime by providing facts? After all, strangely enough, there are still people among this generation who have not yet completely lost their human form.

If this is not the removal of organs for transplantation, then why are the organs so carefully extracted, mainly the kidneys, liver, spleen, pancreas, heart and lungs? This can hardly be explained only by the actions of sick Russian “soldiers” with sadistic tendencies, although, as we know, there are many of them in the ranks of Russian gangs in Chechnya.

Isn’t all this – openly demonstrating the facts of sadism in the form of lethal injections of poisons, distorted and “gutted” corpses, beheadings, detonation of living people and corpses – a distraction maneuver from a more heinous crime?

And in general, what is the need for these institutions to operate in Chechnya, when mass captures and deportations of Chechens outside Chechnya (which then disappear without a trace) – is the usual, daily practice of the occupiers? Doesn’t it follow that traces of the removal, sale and transplantation of Chechen hostages must be sought not only in Chechnya, but also in Russian clinics controlled by special services?

In search of answers, I had to turn to many colleagues, both in Chechnya and in Russia, as well as to collaborationists, given that they have no reason to hide this information.

What did I notice during conversations with colleagues? It is a terrible fear of being heard by an “outsider”. Please do not give their last names and first names. People in Chechnya and Russia have changed a lot. The fear of Stalin’s time returned to them. But people, as in those recent times, try to remain human, overcoming their fear, which are able.

Even employees of the so-called “Ministry of Health” of the puppet administration of Chechnya do not hide the reality of organ harvesting from hostages for transplantation. What surprised and pleased me was that they had amassed a great deal of evidence that such allegations were well-founded, although they lacked the courage to make them public. There are reasons for this.

It turns out that Chechen doctors received incontrovertible evidence of organ harvesting from hostages in early 2000, when they inspected whole corpses dumped near the roads by the occupiers with traces of surgery, ie autopsies to remove internal organs.

Doctors who examined the corpses claim that the wounds on the corpses were not the result of a pathological autopsy, as the Russian occupiers were quick to say, but a surgical autopsy of a living person.

Here are excerpts from the conclusion of one of the acts of examination of the corpse, where doctors say:

“… In the areas of burns on wound tissues, typical of electric knife burns used by the surgeon in operations to stop bleeding from blood vessels in the wound, it is seen that the wound on the corpse in the abdomen is the result of laparotomy surgery performed during life, possibly just before death. … In addition, on the parietal peritoneum, in the areas of laparotomy and projection of the liver, there are characteristic of surgery on living tissues – areas of hemorrhage (hematoma)…

The segment of the inferior vena cava, in the projection of the portal vein of the liver, resected, distal and proximal ends of the inferior vena cava, in place of the resected area, sutured with suturing apparatus, …while the other abdominal and thoracic organs are cut out roughly and, possibly after killing the donor, removed in a block.

The vessels are no longer bandaged. … In the area of ​​the clavicle, on the right there is a puncture wound with hemorrhage under the skin (hematoma), which indicates the catheterization of the subclavian vein for anesthesia during surgery… »

This allowed doctors to conclude: “… The corpse has traces of liver removal by surgeons during lifetime, possibly transplants.” (Note that this is a record of a doctor who superficially examined the corpse, and forensic examination would find a lot of other evidence of liver removal during lifetime, and, with the exhumation of the corpse, confirming the authenticity of this and other conclusions of doctors will not be difficult).

Doctors informed the relatives of the victims and the so-called “Ministry of Health” about the results of the examination. The “health minister” of the puppet administration was afraid to raise the issue of these facts, doctors say. Why these facts are ignored, of course, is clear, and it is difficult to blame anyone. There is a real danger of the disappearance of witnesses. But, despite this, doctors believe that the omission of these facts is tantamount to complicity in this serious crime against people.

“The mass disfigurement of the corpses of people killed after checkpoints’ capture and “sweeps” cannot be explained solely by the actions of lone soldiers with sadistic tendencies. Sadism has a customary, instructive character,” Chechen doctors say.

The goals may be different, but the main aim, in their opinion, is to intimidate the people, although they do not rule out that they want to hide the traces of criminal business – human organs trafficking.

I think it is appropriate to cite the opinion of a doctor who had contacts with doctors of military units of the Russian army:

“The program of a psychotherapist who works in the military consists mostly of methods of psychological suggestion of sadistic tendencies to a soldier,” he said. “Every day, a psychotherapist persistently inspires a soldier how good it is to kill Chechens, showing photos of distorted corpses with the words: “Look, if it weren’t for you, the Russian soldier who destroys these scoundrels, we would be lying in their place!

Do not think that you are killing a person, you are killing your enemy! Their children, women, old people are your enemies, the enemies of your children, your country! Even their younglings dream of stabbing you in the back. Kill them and rejoice – there are less of your enemies now!”

Then they show pictures of the anatomical structure of man, as if offering to check the corpses of these “non-humans’” for a “correct location of organs.” In this way, the soldier’s inclinations for sadism and murderer are instilled purposefully and methodically. “

According to him, the work of psychotherapists is aimed at hiding the traces of medical removal of organs:

“First, a Russian sadistic murderer, trained by a psychotherapist, is unlikely to be interested in seeing the corpse sprayed out, and what it was stripped for;

Secondly, the population is confused by the mass disfigurement of corpses, which is perceived as the result of the sadism of Russian gangs.

“Only 5-10% of the corpses show traces of medical organ harvesting, although the scale of organ trafficking taken from Chechen hostages is huge,” said a Health Ministry official. The “secret” that surrounds this criminal business is not a secret at all.

Only as long as the country is ruled by the FSB, no one will dare to seriously investigate the glaring facts of this terrible crime against humanity. Pathologists and forensic experts are under the control of the FSB and not a single act will be issued without its censorship and correction.

The probability of such conclusions is deeply questionable. Therefore, we have to limit ourselves to an external examination of the corpse, which is not always enough to prove the medical removal of organs.”

“Unproven” accusations of the Russian military command of human organ trafficking in Chechnya made by Chechens are beneficial to the FSB, says the chief doctor of a Chechen hospital, “because the facts that aren’t investigated are nothing more than rumors.” Therefore, it is possible that the FSB periodically throws facts – corpses with removed organs – mixed in with victims of sadists and “gutters” of corpses in the lawless area​​ controlled by it, where the outcome of the investigation of any crime is controlled and predictable.

All this is being done to get the world used to the “unfounded and frivolous” accusations of the Chechen side against the Russian army in hostages’ human organs trafficking from. If the state recognizes its soldiers as sick sadists, and actively helps to strengthen this idea, then they can hide behind it something more disgusting and terrible.”

“The removal of organs from hostages is not carried out in Chechnya or even in the republics and regions closest to us, otherwise it would have been revealed quickly,” said one well-known collaborator. “The hostages are taken to Moscow and the Moscow region, that is where they will be the least sought for and where there is more control over the facilities where they are held.

The fact that there are no living witnesses shows that from the beginning to the end this operation is carried out by the FSB, it’s their handwriting – to never leave witnesses. For some reason, the corpses of hostage donors – after the removal of organs in some quantities – are brought back and dumped near settlements and roads, reason for which I don’t understand.

Maybe the number of missing hostages is not very high. I think Putin is still thinking about the consequences, he guesses that sooner or later he will have to answer. It is more difficult to answer for a hostage who has disappeared, when there is evidence of his detention by state structures. The state, ie Putin, will have to answer for him.

I very much hope that I will be able to learn more about this terrible crime in the near future. Yes, I have my own view on the political system of the republic, but unlike Kadyrov and his entourage, I am not an enemy to my people. “

According to colleagues from Russia, the “services” of hostage-donors from Chechnya are used by more than 60 clinics and institutes in Russia and abroad. Only in Moscow there are 16 of them! These lists also include clinics in Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus. Sensational was the mention of the Clinic of the University of Albert Ludwig (Germany). It says a lot.

Donors are taken abroad alive, in their opinion, and in Moscow and St. Petersburg the ordered organ is collected and transported to anywhere in the world. It takes several hours, which allows you to deliver to the customer a suitable organ for transplantation. And the customers have no idea that they are delivered organs from hostages from Chechnya.

The most frequently mentioned in this case are:

Russian Military Medical Academy of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (St. Petersburg),

The main military hospital. MM Burdenko of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation,

Research Institute of Transplantology and Artificial Organs of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation,

Russian Research Center of Surgery, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences,

Central Scientific X-ray and Radiological Institute of the Ministry of Health of Russia (St. Petersburg),

Research Institute of Ambulance. NV Sklifosovsky.

One of my Russian colleagues advised me to pay attention to one interesting fact.

As soon as Chechnya began talking about corpses with removed organs, it turned out that Putin and the Duma came to their senses and took out of the archives “law on organ transplantation” to add two proposals.

One of them reads as follows: “in this case (in the case of transplantation – author.) the interests of man must prevail over the interests of the society or science.”

Can’t say anything, those are correct words. According to my colleague, there was an intention. It was not because of these two proposals that the media spent two months on “humane and important” additions to the law.

It was propaganda against facts of a terrible crime of the Russian authorities that was revealed by the Chechens. The propaganda was aimed at a democratic West, who, after hearing these “right words”, almost cried with emotion over Putin’s humanity, and immediately deafened to the cries of Chechens.

I do not think that the West does not understand that the laws in Russia are written not only to disobey them, but also to hide the crime.

Russian doctors are noting a progress in transplant centers, although, in general, medicine continues to suffer just as much as it has done so far. The number of organ transplant operations has tripled since 1999.

In some centers, prices for organ transplants have been reduced by up to 50%. It is difficult for my colleagues to explain the surge in such prosperity of Russian transplantology in the context of general poverty, although they point out that the criminal trade in human organs for transplantation is gaining alarming proportions in Russia.

Chechen doctors do not see any miracles in rising work at Russian organ transplant centers. According to estimates, more than 30,000 young Chechens who went missing after being taken hostage by Russian troops have actually been deported to Russia.

They are kept in special, secret institutions controlled by the FSB, and are used in Russian clinics as donors for the removal, sale and transplantation of organs.

I had a conversation with one of the Russian doctors who specializes in transplantation. When I asked him if there were any changes in Russian transplantology since the beginning of the war in Chechnya, he replied: “Yes, of course. If before we had to wait for months for a donor organ, in the last two or three years there are no problems with its delivery.

Problems are only in the solvency of the recipient. I would not be surprised if the president issued a decree on free organ transplantation to all those who need it. The special mafia will not lose from this, it will launder our budget money, because the main clients for “suppliers of human organs” are not poor Russian institutions, but solvent foreign ones. “

At my request to find out: “Are Chechen citizens counted as donors?” He refused: “I’m sorry, I can’t do that. This is due to the fact that instead of the data of most donors, the accompanying documents of the organ include a code that corresponds to Article 14 of the law: “prohibits the disclosure of information about the donor.” The notorious “dictatorship of the law” strikes again.

Even our compassionate patients, who humanly wanted to know to whom they owed their lifeline, were unable to do so. Sometimes others guess who they are – under the code. I think you guessed it.

Transplantology is one of the most profitable branches of medicine. One donor costs at least $200,000 or more. And a living familyless donor with no rights can make a huge profit.

Where there is a lot of money, there is everything – and blood, and death, and crime in law. We all understand that we are involuntarily becoming accomplices in the crime of our mafia state; I hope it will not be for long. “

I recalled the crowds of grief-stricken women in Chechnya with photos of missing people close to them, hopefully meeting European officials, tearfully asking for help to find their son, brother, husband, and mentally addressing them:

“No one will hear our prayers, not even those who survived thanks to your son’s organ transplant! Because our children are registered under numbers instead of surnames, as in Nazi concentration camps!”

The religious world was horrified when doctors suggested cloning a person and using his organs to treat sick people. The condemning voice of Russian Patriarch Alexy II was the loudest. Putin and the Duma quickly drafted a law that tabooed human cloning and its use for “spare parts.”

The most interesting thing is that Putin motivated the urgency of this law by “ethical unacceptability of cloning for Russian society!”. So is the use of Chechen hostages for organ trafficking ethically acceptable to Putin’s society and to the “God” of Patriarch Alexy II?

In this regard, I have a question to the institutions of the protection of fundamental human rights (UN, OSCE, PACE and others), which supported the farce started by hostage traffickers in the form of a “referendum” for Chechen donors – are you, in fact, deliberately proposing that we merrily vote to legitimize Putin’s business in Chechnya? If so, what percentage of the share did you agree to?

One of the Chechen journalists, after Putin’s visit to France, wrote: “The world was convinced of the Russian president’s passion for” transplantology” when he offered journalists in Brussels services to remove one of the organs. Europe pretended not to “understand” and advised journalists not to tease him in Chechnya, which meant: “Let him do anything, don’t be angry and don’t talk nonsense.”

In fact, he was telling the truth. In fact, Putin “knows the places in Moscow” where suicide donors from Chechnya are being held to sell organs for transplant. Only Islamic fundamentalism has the same attitude as “Putin’s society” to ethics.

During Putin’s last visit to France, Jacques Chirac showed by his behavior that he understood him well in Brussels. Given the guest’s passion for organ harvesting, he transferred him to the company of the mayor of Paris, and he himself preferred to stay away. Journalists claim that the Russian “transplantologist” did not understand the hint.

Be that as it may, Europe, with its games of silent pretense and allusions, may end up with French, German, English, Italian and other labels appearing on the shelves of Putin’s donor bank in the near future.

God is with us, with the Chechens, we have no need in that. In my opinion, it’s time for Europeans to think about their organs!” After all, there may not be enough Chechens for long. It’s your turn, Europeans!