Though Russia faces one of the world's fastest-growing HIV epidemics, the government has been slow to respond and hostile to effective HIV prevention. Violations of the rights of injection drug users, little political or financial support for needle exchange, human rights abuses against HIV-positive women and their children, and stigma and misinformation about HIV characterize the national response. For countries elsewhere in Eastern Europe and Asia with large or emerging injection-driven HIV epidemics—including Ukraine, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, and elsewhere—the Russian experience offers important lessons. The continuing expansion of Russia’s epidemic, meanwhile, puts further strain on its demographic and security situations, and directly threatens countries along drug trafficking routes from Central Asia to Europe.

Sponsored by OSI, Human Rights Watch, the New York Young Advocates, and Asia Society, this event paid tribute to the work of Russian organizations at the frontline of HIV prevention and situated their work in a political context. The panel discussion featured:

• Sasha Tsekhanovich, Founder of Russia's first needle exchange and Director, Humanitarian Action;
• Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch, Director of OSI's International Harm Reduction Development Program;
• Rachel Denber, Human Rights Watch, Europe and Central Asia Division.