The number of HIV infections and people living with HIV/AIDS is currently continuing to grow in Russia, despite the priority measures to address the spread of HIV/AIDS undertaken over these past several years. A total of 42,770 new HIV infections were registered in 2007, which is almost 8% higher than were registered in 2006. As a decade ago, injecting drug use has been a main driving factor of the epidemic responsible for over 65% of new HIV infections in 2007. By the end of 2007, injecting drug use had accounted for 83.5% of all HIV cases with known transmission causes.

This policy brief provides an analysis of the key factors contributing to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, as well as an overview of measures taken to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS in Russia. Based on the analysis, the brief proposes a set of policy priorities and recommendations to effectively address the epidemic through prevention of its further spread among IDUs as a target most at-risk population. The policy brief was produced by Transatlantic Partners against AIDS (TPAA) with financial support provided by the Open Health Institute Foundation within the framework of the GLOBUS project, and the company Johnson&Johnson.