This retention of a man having no "illness" would seem ludacris to most who saw Medvedev's story in the newspapers. This turned out to be true as Medvedev would have backs from groups like USSS Academy of Science, Andrei Sakharov, and most importantly a lambast from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 

Sakharov would write to Brezhnev about Medvedev's case. He further went on to say is arousing deep indignation and anxiety in the Soviet and international scientific communities; it is seen not only as lawlessness towards Medvedev personally, but also as a potential threat to intellectual freedom and to Soviet democracy in general. Psychiatric hospitals must not be used as a means of repression against inconvenient persons …” This letter had not seemed to gain any reply, however, now many departments with the Soviet Government were scared. 

The increased scrutiny by highly influential dissenters like Sakharov, would lead to an alarm to sound to the rest of the world. 

The World Psychiatric Association would be one of the first to try and gauge just how deep the abuses went. They would try and send delegations to the Soviet hospitals and would rarley if at all see actual patients. When they did they would be at the scrutiny of the KGB and their fears. In one case a British Doctor would have his interview transcripts stripped from him at the airport. He would go to still publish the interview from his memory. These delegations along with the American Red Cross who had also went to see the conditions of these hospitals would be threatened by the KGB if they spoke out about their experiences. 

Eventually, the association would meet in at their 6th Congress. Here the Soviet Union now having their unkempt secret be launched on a international stage would withdraw from the association. They withdrew in protest as they saw the declaration that the Kremlin was allowing such abuses to happen was insulting.

This would however would be a point of debate as Soviet newspapers now broke stories of the institutions and the abuses held there. No longer could the Soviet government hold onto so many clear political prisoners. In a set of legal changes under the banner of Gorbachev's Perestroika the government would look internally and change policy to try and win back favor with the West and the rest of the world. They would remove the KGB from any significant roles in the process of arresting and depositing dissents in mental institutions. The KGB and the Department of the Interior would no longer have any jurisdiction on the maintenance and operation of any psychiatric facilities. With all these changes a great amount of political prisoners were set free from their torments.