The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation has announced targeted measures aimed at lowering the incidence of cardiovascular diseases and increasing healthy life expectancy.

During the roundtable discussion titled “Increasing Life Expectancy: The Challenge of Cardiovascular Disease in Russia,” participants called for more rigorous control over cardiovascular risk factors. The discussion took place on 29 June at the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation.

Opening the session, Anastasia Stolkova, a member of the Civic Chamber’s Healthcare Commission and CEO of the RC-Medicine Foundation, emphasized that elevated cholesterol levels remain a critical public health threat.

“The expert community recognizes effective dyslipidemia control as one of the most vital avenues for driving down cardiovascular mortality and achieving our national life expectancy goals,” Stolkova said. “I propose we focus our dialogue on this issue. Following our discussion, we will draft a formal resolution to share directly with the relevant ministries and regulatory agencies.”

According to roundtable moderator Evelina Zakamskaya, a VGTRK presenter and editor-in-chief of the Doctor TV Channel, cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of mortality nationwide. She noted: “To effectively mitigate these threats — and to ensure the government acts swiftly to deploy the necessary policy changes — we must look far beyond simply treating the consequences. Our priority must shift to proactive risk management, early anticipation, and disease prevention. Ultimately, we need robust regulatory solutions designed to neutralize these risks.”

The federal project “Combating Cardiovascular Diseases,” a key component of the “Long and Active Life” national project, is designed to prioritize disease prevention, eliminate clinical complications, and provide long-term support for patients recovering from acute illnesses or managing chronic heart failure, noted Elena Skachkova, Deputy Director of the Russian Government’s Department of Healthcare. Addressing dyslipidemia as a primary risk factor, she clarified that diagnostic and preventive screenings are fully covered under the state programme of guaranteed free medical care for patients. Furthermore, under the overarching framework of healthy longevity medicine, primary prevention — specifically targeting underlying health risks — remains paramount. Proactively managing patients with these identified risk profiles is a top priority for the healthcare system, a mandate explicitly detailed in the Strategy for Healthcare Development in the Russian Federation until 2030, approved by presidential decree.

“When managing cardiovascular diseases, our ultimate goal must be to prevent risk factors from developing altogether, rather than simply identifying and eliminating them after they appear,” Elena Skachkova believes.

Thanks to the strategic rollout of this federal project, the healthcare system has been able to fundamentally overhaul outpatient monitoring for cardiovascular patients, noted Evgeny Kamkin, Deputy Minister of Healt of the Russian Federation: “We have deployed a highly structured outpatient monitoring framework that provides explicit, step-by-step clinical algorithms for every practicing physician and specialist.”

According to the Deputy Minister, the current priority is shifting focus from purely quantitative metrics to qualitative indicators. A prime example of such a metric is the number of patients who successfully navigate an entire calendar year without experiencing a single acute cardiovascular event.

“To hit our targets by 2030, we must significantly advance diagnostic capabilities for chronic ischemic heart disease, scaling up our annual volume to exceed 570,000 stress tests nationwide,” Evgeny Kamkin announced, outlining the federal project’s key performance metrics. “Furthermore, we must increase the coverage of reperfusion therapy for patients with acute myocardial infarction by 16 percent, while expanding the deployment of mechanical thrombectomy — a treatment method for strokes — by more than 200 percent.”

According to Nana Pogosova, Deputy Director General for Scientific and Analytical Work and Preventive Cardiology and Head of the Preventive Cardiology Laboratory at the National Medical Research Center of Cardiology named after Academician Yevgeniy Chazov, chronic rather than acute conditions present the greatest long-term cardiovascular risks. She emphasizes that continuous prevention must remain a primary focus throughout the entire course of the disease to systematically reduce the risk of recurrent cardiovascular events.

Denis Protsenko, Director of the Kommunarka Moscow Multidisciplinary Clinical Centre of the Moscow Healthcare Department, outlined critical priorities for dyslipidemia prevention. These include the early identification of high-risk individuals, enhanced pharmaceutical access, the categorization of priority patient groups, and the development of a structured roadmap for future action.

Yuri Zhulev, Co-Chair of the All-Russian Patients’ Union, presented proposals regarding subsidized drug access. He advocates for extending the duration of free medication coverage for eligible cardiovascular patients and expanding the eligibility criteria to include additional patient categories.
Roundtable participants concluded that significant progress has been made in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases over the past 30 years. To scale up these advancements and achieve national life expectancy goals, they emphasized the necessity of tightening control over primary risk factors, with dyslipidemia remaining the most critical one. Finally, experts noted that alongside state initiatives and clinical measures, individual motivation and a personal commitment to wellness play a decisive role in the long-term prevention of cardiovascular diseases.