The Federal Drug Control Service is opaque and prone to corruption, while its rank-and-file staff lack any clear-cut mission and often commit abuses, according to a scathing independent study of the two-year-old agency released Tuesday. The report, written under the auspices of the Moscow Helsinki Group, a human rights organization, and Indem, an anti-corruption think tank, is the latest blow to the Federal Drug Control Service, which President Vladimir Putin created to tackle the country's drug problem. The agency has been repeatedly accused of ignoring the real problems behind drug abuse and instead chasing veterinarians and dacha poppy-growers to pad its arrest statistics. [continues 745 words]
Against the backdrop of a dangerous rise in HIV and AIDS cases among adults, the number of children under 15 carrying the deadly virus remains relatively low. But AIDS experts say that due to a lack of medicines and no unified state policy, HIV-infected children often find themselves in more dire straits than adult patients. "Adult patients can be treated with 16 medicines, while for children's therapy only five or six medicines are available in Russia," said Yevgeny Voronin, chief doctor of the St. Petersburg Infectious Diseases Hospital. [continues 579 words]
