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Putin pledges to
dramatically increase Russia’s HIV spending

Putin pledges to
dramatically increase Russia’s HIV spending

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)

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