For decades, Russian political science developed in an atmosphere dominated by the American schools of political science, and from now on, it will have to ascend independently through the generalization of empirical material accumulated by other social sciences, including sociology. Some sections of sociology are traditionally not in the focus of attention of political scientists, as it seems that they cover areas far from politics. Such areas included the sociology of health care. But during periods of political crises, politics invades seemingly distant spheres. Vlad Kravtsov, the author of the monograph Autocracy and Health Governance in Russia published in 2022 by Palgrave Macmillan, skillfully integrates his work into the conceptual design of his American colleagues who set themselves the goal of proving the inconsistency of Russian statehood in its current form. In his book, Kravtsov pays special attention to the issues of combating and preventing the HIV epidemic/AIDS, he considers periods when efforts were made to counter the epidemic, but which during its spread claimed the lives more than 40 million people, according to the UNAIDS. Kravtsov argues that the Russian healthcare, with its conservative orientation on traditions and “ignoring international approaches”, cannot cope with the catastrophic scale of the HIV epidemic/AIDS. Noting sometimes the real shortcomings of the Russian management system, V. Kravtsov does not think about how to eliminate them, but suggests a complete dismantling of the system, which is an undoubted reason to carefully consider the political aspects and implications of the problem.