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III. METHODS

In February 2004 in Saint Petersburg, two Human Rights Watch staff members interviewed in detail thirty persons at high risk of HIV, including drug users, former drug users, sex workers and people living with HIV/AIDS, and spoke more informally to another sixteen members of support groups of people with AIDS. The identities of most of these persons have been withheld at their request. These persons were identified largely with the help of Russian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and government health facilities providing services to them. We also spoke with fourteen service providers, including city health officials, a prison official, and HIV/AIDS educators and service providers in NGOs. Interviews were conducted in health facilities, in NGO offices, on the street, and in public places such as cafes. We were unable to get a statement on the record from the Saint Petersburg police.

In Moscow, we met with federal health officials and attended a meeting of donors and government officials at the World Bank on the subject of access to treatment for HIV/AIDS in Russia. Repeated attempts to meet with officials of the State Drug Control Committee were unsuccessful. From New York and Moscow, we interviewed international AIDS and narcotics control experts.

The majority of interviews were conducted in Russian; a few were in English. Almost all interviews were conducted on an individual basis with only a few group interviews. Human Rights Watch also gathered unpublished and published government and NGO documents on HIV/AIDS and drug use and other background material from a wide range of sources.

We chose to highlight the case of Saint Petersburg, firstly, because it has a much higher estimated rate of HIV prevalence than most cities and regions in Russia and a high estimated rate of injection drug use. Secondly, the city has a track record of allowing HIV prevention activities for injection drug users, notably needle exchange services, to operate continuously since 1997, which is not the case in Moscow and some other Russian cities. Thirdly, we had received reports indicating that, even in the somewhat friendly policy environment of Saint Petersburg, HIV prevention services for people at high risk of HIV continued to face state-sponsored impediments. As such we thought that examining conditions in Saint Peterburg would provide strong evidence of a life-threatening problem that should be of concern to federal and regional authorities.


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