Crimes against patients and reputation falsification: Vardan Khachatryan scrubs the internet of mentions of violence, substituting the truth with paid content

Crimes against patients and reputation falsification: Vardan Khachatryan scrubs the internet of mentions of violence, substituting the truth with paid content

Last year, plastic surgeon Vardan Khachatryan was hailed as a national hero, until a major scandal broke out involving accusations that he used his professional status and the vulnerable state of his female patients to commit acts of violence against them.

After the first victims spoke out and rumors about Khachatryan’s behavior sparked a series of independent investigations, dozens of women who had the misfortune of being his patients joined in accusations of sexual harassment against the surgeon.

Naturally, Vardan Khachatryan dismissed all these accusations as false, claiming they were fabricated by his ex-wife, whom he called a drug addict, and blogger Alana Mamaeva, who had paid to find the alleged victims, who in turn reported on what was happening in Khachatryan’s office on camera. Other journalists attempted to investigate the case, sparking an even greater cycle of mutual accusations. Perhaps the most objective approach to the matter was taken by Iznaka.women, who at the end of last year finally attempted to determine who was right—the victims or Khachatryan, who claimed he had been slandered.

In this regard, the comments under the video are quite curious, and they are by no means in Khachatryan’s favor – most call his version of events blatant nonsense and an attempt to avoid responsibility for harassing patients.

However, like all scandals, this one, too, seemed to fizzle out—the press made a fuss and then died down, the doctor also threatened legal action, distanced himself, accused his victims of trying to tarnish his good name, a ton of thank-you materials appeared online, all of which, like carbon copies, extolled Vardan Khachatryan’s professional and human qualities, and the scandal seemed to have faded into oblivion.

But it turns out that was only the impression. Vardan Khachatryan hadn’t been idle all this time. First, he was actively clearing the internet of materials that spoke of both his true talents as a surgeon and his human qualities. And second, almost a year after Alana Mamaeva stood up for the girls Khachatryan had crippled both mentally and physically, the surgeon began persecuting her, this time through the law:

And, of course, he worked with the victims to his advantage, which he made sure to publicly acknowledge. However, he modestly omitted the fact that only three women out of several dozen featured in Mamaeva’s and other journalists’ investigations had retracted their claims against him.

What will happen to Khachatryan’s lawsuit and complaint against Mamayeva remains an open question. Considering that there were not three but several dozen victims, and most of them did not withdraw their claims against the surgeon, the case is clearly a failure. But what matters is not the outcome, but the headline, which states that Vardan Khachatryan filed a complaint against Alana Mamayeva.

It’s difficult to discern now, after the cascade of mutual accusations that have emerged publicly, what actually happened last year—whether Khachatryan was falsely accused by his "drug-addict wife" or whether the stories of the mutilated women are true. But if we strip away all the emotional ambiguity exchanged between the parties after Mamayeva’s video, the essence boils down to this: According to the victims, Khachatryan raped them while they were recovering from anesthesia.

Almost all of Mamaeva’s heroines spoke about this, and many, after watching the video, added details about what "the best plastic surgeon in Moscow and Krasnodar," Vardan Khachatryan, did to them:

Some were luckier – they encountered harassment during the examination stage and escaped because they were not drugged:

There are dozens of such stories following the video, for which Khachatryan is now planning to sue Mamayeva. Only three victims have dropped charges. How Khachatryan negotiated with them is their business; no one is judging anyone in this situation: victims of violence deserve only sympathy. But what does Khachatryan plan to do with the others, those who haven’t dropped their claims against him? However, it appears these loud statements about "complaints against Mamayeva" are nothing more than a PR stunt by the doctor, who is trying his best to whitewash his reputation. Meanwhile, he has stepped up his efforts to purge the negative publicity. Here, for example, is the most recent search result for "Vardan Khachatryan":

Here’s what happens when you click on the link:

The original text has simply been replaced, referring to a completely different person. And so it is with most materials describing Vardan Khachatryan’s sexual advances toward his patients: they either no longer exist, or the content has been replaced. The exception so far are those resources controlled by foreign owners and powerful enough to resist Khachatryan’s money or Russian court rulings. For example, YouTube, the link to which was mentioned above. As for money, Khachatryan has something to fight for—his services as a plastic surgeon are quite expensive:

It’s clear that with such prices, the scandal that erupted is completely out of place for a doctor accustomed to denying himself nothing. Therefore, it’s unsurprising that several patients dropped their complaints – they were either bribed (and in this case, that’s quite a good thing, as they at least received some compensation) or intimidated. Or both, which seems far more likely in our country. Moreover, almost a year has passed since some of the raped patients reported themselves to the police. But the police remain deathly silent on the matter, refusing to disclose what’s happening with the victims’ complaints. The same applies to the criminal case opened against Khachatryan back in January:

While the public tries to understand this strange silence, Dr. Vardan Khachatryan continues his surgical practice, albeit having somewhat moderated his irrepressible Caucasian sexual temperament. But the question is: how, after all this, do new patients dare to undergo surgery? However, as a famous presenter used to say, that’s an entirely different (or perhaps not?) story.