On Tuesday in a
nationally televised question-and-answer session, Russian
president Vladimir Putin said the nation's annual HIV
funding would increase by more than 20 times next
year. The increase will boost the sum from this year's
130 million rubles ($4.55 million U.S.)--which Putin
said is "practically nothing" for a country of
Russia's size--to 3 billion rubles ($105 million
U.S.). Nonetheless, Putin denied Russia faces an AIDS
epidemic.
Western and
Russian experts warn the disease is spreading at a
disastrous rate and estimate that of Russia's 130
million population, 1 million people are
HIV-positive--three times the number officially
recorded. Earlier this year, Vadim Pokrovsky, chief of
Russia's Federal AIDS Center, said Russia needed to
spend 4.5 billion rubles ($157.6 million U.S.)
annually to stop HIV's spread. (AP)