IT was when her 9-year-old son said he wanted to be ill to keep her home that Ekaterina Chatskaya knew the cuts at her Moscow clinic had gone too far and she was working too many hours.

    The 33-year-old Russian gynecologist said her work burden became unbearable when management announced new job losses in November. Unable to cope, she and dozens of other doctors in Moscow started a “work-to-rule” action — refusing to work beyond their official contract hours — to try to protect a health service they say is being driven to ruin.

    Their action is a rare display of discontent in Russia, where resurgent patriotism over the annexation of Crimea last year has largely eclipsed frustration over job cuts, rising prices and lower wages in an economic crisis deepened by Western sanctions over Moscow’s role in Ukraine and a weak oil price.

    But despite feeling the squeeze more than most, Russia’s nascent middle class is reluctant to blame President Vladimir Putin and his policies.

    “It was simply because of the increasing burden. At first it was more or less tolerable, then it snowballed,” Chatskaya said, listing the rise in responsibilities and patients, and cuts in jobs, at her clinic on the outskirts of Moscow that accelerated over the last six months as the government cut spending.

    (SD-Agencies)