Condoms Spread HIV, Claims Kremlin Researchers

"Experts" say Russia's fight against HIV is based in "conservative ideology and traditional values."
From: NewNowNext

A study funded by a Kremlin-backed organization says that condoms are to be blamed for the spread of HIV in Russia and that the best defense against the virus is to be in a committed heterosexual relationship.

The study was released this past Tuesday by the ultra-conservative Russian Institute for Strategic Research in response to national concern over the rise of HIV and AIDS in the country. This concern first arose last year when Russia’s leading AIDS expert Vadim Pokrovsky cautioned that the virus could affect upwards of 2 million citizens by 2020.

In a statement made at the time of the study’s release, RISR Deputy Director Tatyana Guzenkova said the HIV epidemic was nothing more than an “information war” waged against Russia by the West.

Igor Beloborodov, who co-wrote the report, agreed, saying that health industries are using the spread of HIV as a fear-mongering tactic to sell more condoms.

“The contraceptive industry is interested in selling their products and encouraging under-aged people to engage in sex.” He argued that it’s this increase in sex that has led to the rise in cases of HIV, adding that the only way to fully protect against the virus is to “be in a heterosexual family where both partners are loyal to each other.”

According to local paper Kommersant, Guzenkova said that the West focuses too much on “neoliberal ideological content” in their fight against HIV/AIDS. In her opinion, this lends a certain “insensitivity towards national sensitivities and over-focus of certain at-risk groups, such as drug addicts and LGBT people.” Russia’s fight, on the other hand, is “based on a conservative ideology and traditional values.”

AIDS expert Pokrovsky says it’s this conservative focus that has caused such a sharp rise in HIV cases in Russia. He reports that roughly 930,000 Russians have HIV today, up from 500,000 in 2010.

“The last five years of the conservative approach have led to the doubling of the number of HIV-infected people,” Mr Pokrovsky told AFP.

Pokrovsky estimates that nearly 100,000 Russians a year contract HIV and that these numbers will only increase if the government continues their crusade against condoms.