UN WELCOMES ARMSS
In late May 2011, our Society started applying for general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) at the UN. By about mid-October before the ARMSS 3rd Congress in Samara, that process finished and the Committee was expected to invite the ARMSS, as due, to its 2012 Regular Session on 30 January – 8 February 2012 in New York to consider our application and possibly see the ARMSS incorporated at this biggest and most influential international agency in the world.
Patient organizations are prominent in the system of rendering medical assistance to patients with MS. I am glad that there is the organization of patients – All-Russian Multiple Sclerosis Society (ARMSS) that has actively been at work for almost 10 years. From 3-6 November, the Third Congress of the ARMSS will be held in Samara within the frames of the 2nd All-Russian Patients Congress; simultaneously, the All-Russian scientific and practical conference of neurologists ‘Multiple Sclerosis: A Ten-Year Partnership to Serve Patients’ will take place there. 
While passing the Declaration about patients’ rights in Russia last year, we did not expect, indeed, that such a principle to respect a patient’s time would see the first reading in the new law ‘About the basics of healthcare…’ This comes when, these days, people often have to wait for assistance from doctors for years. We just thought that patients must have this right, and we wrote and said and, then, said again about it… Though, I am appealing to you now as the law has not been passed yet; the medical profession are in strong opposition to the introduction of this norm, but it is still in the draft law before the second reading, while we do our best to keep it there.