The government Friday marked International AIDS Awareness Day by announcing that a controversial law requiring all long-term foreign residents in Russia to take an AIDS test will soon be ready for implementation.


Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, in response to calls from the Duma for government action, has signed a decree requiring foreigners applying to stay in Russia for more than three months to present a certificate proving that they are HIV-free, his press service said.


And in a key move to clear the way toward the law's actual implementation, the government has approved the type of certificate necessary to prove a visitor does not carry the virus. One government official said the new rules should take effect after the new year.


Among other things, all applications for a visa will have to include the day the HIV test was taken, show the testing doctor's signature and carry the name of the equipment and method used for testing.


The form must be completed in English and Russian and will be valid for three months after the date of the test.


"The government confirms the need for this certificate," said Alexander Voznesensky of the government's press ser been a major problem for the government since it was passed in March, shortly after President Boris Yeltsin vetoed an earlier draft which demanded that all people entering the country for any reason -- even tourists -- should provide proof that they were HIV-negative.


The law was to have taken effect Aug. 1, but bureaucratic delays and confusion at the Foreign Ministry stalled its implementation. That remains the case now.


"The instructions about its execution are still in the process of being put into effect," said Nikolai Sadchikov, deputy director of the Foreign Ministry's consular services department. "That's all I can say."


Reaction to the law from AIDS activists was swift and strong. All are agreed that whenever it takes effect, it will be a disaster.


"In terms of public health this kind of law is nonsense," said Kevin Gardner of the AESOP Center, an AIDS information and education organization, adding that the law does nothing to address the domestic AIDS situation.


According to government statistics, 1,033 Russians have HIV, 185 of whom have full-blown AIDS. Health Ministry officials say 161 people in Russia have died of AIDS, but all of these statistics are widely believed to underestimate the true situation by a multiple of up to 10.


The HIV test actually detects antibodies to the virus, and the government's regulation does not take into account the window period in which those antibodies form. In other words, you could actually have HIV and test negative early in the window period, Gardner said.


The regulation also fails to recognize that the test only reflects a person's antibody status on the day he or she takes the test. The very next day, that person could become infected if he or she comes in contact with the virus.


"It doesn't take into account human psychology. Repressive policies always open up loopholes, and encourage people to find ways to get around these policies," Gardner said. "Obviously, a black market will develop for obtaining these certificates." He labelled the visa restriction an "Iron Curtain against HIV-positives."


But World AIDS Day in Russia brought more than travel restrictions. At a Moscow press conference, the country's top AIDS specialist, Vadim Pokrovsky, announced the development in Russia of a new AIDS drug he described as more powerful and less toxic than AZT, currently the most effective drug in retarding the spread of the disease in humans. Pokrovsky declined to name the drug, saying an additional 846 million rubles ($184,700) were needed to push it out of development and into clinical testing, Interfax reported.


Moscow's more sensational daily newspapers greeted AIDS Awareness Day with some surprising articles. Vechernyaya Moskva told its readers that nine out of 10 patients in a typical U.S. hospital are infected with AIDS. Moskovsky Komsomolets blamed the presence of AIDS in Russia on an African pilot who infected "22 sex fiends."


While there appeared to be some indication that Russia is recognizing the threat of AIDS from within, the emphasis Friday was once again on the disease's origins and not the fact of its presence in Russia.


Narkevich, at the press conference, said the country's exposure to AIDS will grow as more Russians travel abroad and bring the disease back with them. At the same time, he called for a more effective control of the disease's spread and a preventative educational campaign.


"We have our own problems," he said, according to Reuters. "The most dangerous and worrying is a sharp growth in the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases among young people in Russia."