“AIDS.CENTER Foundation Withdraws from HIV Awareness Study Due to Exclusion of Key Activist”

This year, the AIDS.CENTER Foundation, together with VTsIOM, organized a study on the awareness of the Russian population about HIV, methods of its prevention and modern methods of treatment. A similar study in Russia was last conducted more than five years ago, so it was designed to reflect the real picture of awareness, as well as the level of stigma in relation to people with HIV-positive status.

We also planned to hold a joint press conference at TASS dedicated to the results of this study and timed to coincide with the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of AIDS. However, already after the study, representatives of VTsIOM reported that it was undesirable and impossible for the founder of our Foundation and, in fact, the first famous person in the country to openly talk about his HIV status, Anton Krasovsky, to participate in it.

Anton is the founder of our Foundation and the Chairman of its Council. For many years he has been openly talking about the problems of people with HIV, and also promotes assistance at all levels: from the patient to the Ministry of Health.

As a result, we are forced to withdraw from this study. The very policy and principles of the Foundation make it impossible to cooperate with an organization that considers it possible to exclude one of the main figures and activists of the community from the dialogue about the HIV epidemic in the country.