'Dirty Money' Offered to Russian Doctors

M O S C O W, May 15 -- They say money talks and something else walks, but a Russian surgeon says it's that something else that he's been offered in lieu of payment for services rendered.

After months of waiting to receive part of his salary, Russian doctor Yury Zotov was finally offered alternative compensation: a truckload of manure.

"It's an insult," he said, calling in to complain to a Moscow television program late Monday night.

"I'm a surgeon, what do I need with manure?"

Zotov and other hospital and government workers in the town of Vacha had been waiting since December to receive part of that month's wage.

Local authorities finally proposed giving them the dung instead of money.

"If they'd offered us sugar or sand, maybe we'd have kept quiet, but manure?" Zotov told the TV program.

It’s a Fair Offer, Says One Doctor

Nikolay Aleksandrovich Sankin, head doctor at the hospital where Zotov works, was less critical of the proposal, saying the offer was fair. But he admitted dung wasn't high on most local residents' list of needs.

"They have their own supply," he said, explaining most people in the town keep livestock.

Vacha, a small town about 350 miles southeast of Moscow, is in a rural area where residents traditionally supplement their income by farming and gardening.

‘Everybody’s Looking for Manure’

Vacha's mayor Aleksander Abrosimov also defended the deal.

"Everyone is looking for manure," he said, writing in the Moscow Times. But despite being offered the manure at about 30 percent below market rates — 350 rubles ($12) for three to four tons — most have chosen not to take the government up on the offer.

Vacha hospital doctors' salaries range from $24 to $52 a month, while some nurses earn as little as $17 a month.

So far, only two people have signed up for the manure offer, with the rest opting to wait for cold, hard cash.

ABCNEWS' Sergiusz Morenc in Moscow contributed to this report.