Vasya In The Hay: Russia’s Systemic Neglect & Abuse of Citizens

Broken Doors and Locked Doors

Apart from paragraph headers, I have refrained from commenting on this video. What we see and hear in Vasya In The Hay’s video speaks for itself.

In his most recent YouTube upload titled ‘WE HAD TO BREAK DOWN THE DOOR… What we found inside was Horrifying. Russia hates its own‘, Independent video blogger and humanitarian Sergei Lukyanov (known as the YouTube channel Vasya In The Hay) has documented what is probably the most distressing case of elderly abandonment in Russia that he’s come across on his channel to date.

Focused on the case of an elderly former carpenter, Viktor, living in the city of Serpukhov (in Moscow Oblast), the video goes well beyond the general case of poverty to demonstrate a total collapse of emergency services, social care and local administration.

The Situation: An Elderly Man Trapped Behind a Locked Door

Viktor, a retired carpenter who’d lost the use of his legs, had been stranded in a communal apartment room all by himself for several days. Neighbours had reported that local scammers had been taking advantage of him, coming into his room to take his pension and bank card and leaving him completely at their mercy.

When Sergei got there, having received the tip-off, he found the room locked from the inside and Viktor unable to get to the door to open it.

Systemic Breakdowns in Russia: Medical, Emergency, and Social Services

What followed was a harrowing sequence illustrating how local state services repeatedly failed to intervene:

1. Emergency Medical Care

Initial neglect: neighbours confirm that ambulance staff came twice before Sergei got there. They gave him painkillers (injections), took his blood pressure and left him just lying on the floor naked.
Refusal to admit: neighbours say the medics initially refused to take him to hospital, giving various reasons about ownership of the property rather than acknowledging it was a life-threatening medical emergency.
Delayed intervention: it wasn’t until Sergei went straight to the newly arrived ambulance crew and supplied them with clean bedding that the medical staff agreed to take Viktor. They said he looked as though he’d had a stroke or a heart attack.

2. Emergency Services

When the emergency services eventually got called to open the room they lifted Viktor off the floor and put him back onto his bed. They then left without giving him any food, water or medical care and he was just left there for several more days.

3. Social Care Administration

Inadequate Response: Neighbours noted that social service workers had previously visited the building while the room was locked. They left a single package of instant noodles outside the door and departed without checking if Viktor was alive inside.
Bureaucratic exclusion: Sergei went straight to the local social protection office (which was in the Serpukhov municipal administration building) and found it locked to the public.
Refusal of assistance: security and staff were clear that the department didn’t take walk-in queries and only communicated via telephone or Telegram bots. Sergei eventually managed to get through to the internal phone line to report a man who was dying and the official on the line just hung up on him.

The Human Impact and Grassroots Support

Despite the sheer chaos of the filming and the myriad of problems encountered at every turn, the video is in effect a very real record of community intervention in the absence of any formal institutions. Neighbours came in to feed Viktor through the window where they could. Sergei and his team provided food, clean water, clean bedding and the sheer amount of persistence required to get the emergency services to actually admit Viktor to hospital.

Sergey’s channel is entirely dependent on private reader donations and Patreon to carry out these grassroots rescue operations in the remote and rural parts of Russia.

Supporting the Cause: Vasya In The Hay

For those wishing to support Sergei’s humanitarian outreach work directly, his primary support channels remain active:

Background information about Sergei Lukyanov of Vasya In The Hay: Калужский блогер стал лауреатом Национальной премии интернет-контента (A blogger from Kaluga has become a winner of the National Internet Content Award). 3 June 2022. In Russian. The first National Award of Internet Content will be held on June 2 in Moscow. In English.

Do you follow Vasya In The Hay on YouTube? Your comments are most welcome.

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