Leonid Mikhailovich Roshal (born April 27, 1933 in

Livny Livny (russian: Ливны, p=ˈlʲivnɨ) is a town in Oryol Oblast, Russia. As of 2018, it had a population of 47,221. :ru:Ливны#cite note-2018AA-3 History The town is believed to have originated in 1586 as Ust-Livny, a wooden fort on th ...

) is a noted

pediatrician Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...

from Moscow, Russia, expert for the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

, and chairman of International Charity Fund to Help Children in Disasters and Wars.

Biography

Roshal was born in the village of

Oryol Oblast Oryol Oblast (russian: Орло́вская о́бласть, ''Orlovskaya oblast''), also known as Orlovshchina (russian: Орловщина) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is th ...

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

, Soviet Union. His mother, Emma, came from a Jewish family in what is today Ukraine. His father, Mikhail, was a

fighter jet Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

pilot. Roshal has been leading the Emergency Surgery & Children's Trauma Department of Moscow's Pediatric Scientific Research Institute since 1981. In 2003, he also took over the Moscow Institute of Emergency Children's Surgery & Traumatology, which is currently treating 60,000 children a year. Roshal negotiated with Chechen terrorists during the

Moscow theater hostage crisis The Moscow theater hostage crisis (also known as the 2002 Nord-Ost siege) was the seizure of the crowded Dubrovka Theater by Chechen terrorists on 23 October 2002, which involved 850 hostages and ended with Russian security services killing o ...

in 2002. He also served as a negotiator in the 2004

Beslan school hostage crisis The Beslan school siege (also referred to as the Beslan school hostage crisis or the Beslan massacre) was a terrorist attack that started on 1 September 2004, lasted three days, involved the imprisonment of more than 1,100 people as hostages ( ...

, working for the release of children and trying to convince the hostage-takers to allow the hostages to have food and water. After the events in the Beslan crisis played out, he also served as the advisor to the medical teams that had to treat burn wounds on hundreds of children. Since 2005 he is a member of the

Public Chamber of Russia The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation (russian: Общественная палата Российской Федерации), sometimes shortened to Civic Chamber (russian: Общественная палата), is a consultative civil s ...

. He is also a member of the Presidential Commission on Human Rights.

Views

Roshal publicly spoke out against the war in Chechnya and the arrest of

Mikhail Khodorkovsky Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky (russian: link=no, Михаил Борисович Ходорковский, ; born 26 June 1963), sometimes known by his initials MBK, is an exiled Russian businessman and opposition activist, now residing in L ...

. In February 2006 he criticized the Mothers of Beslan for "judging the state rather than the terrorists" at a trial of one of the Beslan hostage takers. Roshal is a supporter of

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

and his policies. Since 2013, he has been a member of the central headquarters of the

All-Russia People's Front The All-Russia People's Front (ONF; russian: Общероссийский народный фронт, Obshcherossiyskiy narodnyy front), is a political coalition in Russia started in 2011 by then- Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin to provide ...

, a right-wing political coalition led by Putin. In 2020, Russian opposition leader

Alexei Navalny Alexei Anatolievich Navalny ( rus, links=no, Алексей Анатольевич Навальный, , ɐlʲɪkˈsʲej ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ nɐˈvalʲnɨj; born 4 June 1976) is a Opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia, Russian opposition ...

's wife,

Yulia Navalnaya Yulia Borisovna Navalnaya ( rus, Юлия Борисовна Навальная, , ˈjulija nɐˈvalʲnɐja; ; born 24 July 1976) is a Russian public figure, economist and the wife of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. She has been d ...

, characterized Roshal as "little more than a stooge" for Putin. On February 25, 2023, the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

imposed sanctions against Roshal due to his co-chairmanship of the All-Russia People's Front, which provides support for Russia's war against Ukraine, and his personal statements in support of the military action against Ukraine. Roshal is outspoken anti-gay. In 2013, during press conference answering the question about his views on the

Russian gay propaganda law The Russian federal law "for the Purpose of Protecting Children from Information Advocating a Denial of Traditional Family Values", also referred to in English-language media as Russia's gay propaganda law or anti-gay law, is a bill that was una ...

discussed by the Russian parliament back then he said "I'll be short: I hate gays and everything about it". (in Russian)

Awards

* 2018 - Ahmadiyya Muslim Peace Prize for the year 2017

References

External links

Businessweek "2005 Stars of Europe" ArticleThe last witness. What doctor Roshal's insult was to Mothers of Beslan

Novye Izvestia ''Novye Izvestia'' (russian: Новые Известия) is an daily newspaper, published in Moscow, Russia. History It was founded in 1997 by a group of journalists who left ''Izvestia'' newspaper, with the financial backing of Boris Berezovsk ...

, February 13, 2006. Machine-translated by www.online-translator.com. Last accessed August 5, 2006. 1933 births Beslan school siege Russian Jews Living people Russian pediatricians Moscow theater hostage crisis Soviet pediatricians Members of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation Recipients of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Peace Prize {{Russia-med-bio-stub