For a long time, Aids was a skeleton in Russia’s cupboard, ignored by the government, business and society. The country now has one of the fastest growing rates of HIV/Aids infection in the world. The Kremlin has woken up to the simmering epidemic that will accelerate Russia’s already dramatic demographic decline.
Unlike heart disease, the most frequent cause of untimely death in Russia, HIV/Aids has mainly hit young people, threatening to enfeeble and decimate both the workforce and the army, the twin pillars of the Kremlin’s plan to rebuild Russia as a strong economic and military power.
