Required AIDS Testing for Foreigners Looms

The State Duma passed the first reading of a controversial bill on AIDS prevention Friday by a large majority, requiring foreigners coming to Russia to work or study to take mandatory HIV tests or present a certificate proving they are not infected.The Russian parliament's lower house voted 260 to five with six abstentions to approve the bill, which had been roundly condemned by AIDS education organizations and the foreign community. Amendments could still be introduced pending a second reading on July 10.The draft law leaves unclear whether foreigners already resident in Russia are covered, but it does include residents returning to the country from trips abroad. Bella Denisenko, head of the Duma's health-care committee which drafted the bill, said mandatory testing was "a matter of state security" for Russia."We should erect a civilized barrier against infected foreigners coming in," she said. "Those who don't want AIDS incidence in Russia to reach the level of Western nations should vote for the bill."Several changes have been introduced to the bill by the health-care committee to thwart criticism from liberal deputies and the foreign community.According to the amended bill, tourists will not have to take AIDS tests on arrival in Russia. The new regulations, if passed, would require only foreigners coming to Russia to work or study to take the tests. Besides, Denisenko said, Russia may sign agreements with other nations allowing their citizens to obtain certificates stating they are HIV negative before coming to Russia.Denisenko said Russia will recognize most major Western nations' certificates.But the bill remained unchanged in its main part which requires the deportation of foreigners carrying the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, which causes the fatal disease AIDS.Kevin Gardner, the American co-director of the Aesop Center for AIDS prevention, said the watered-down bill still violated human rights."It violates the freedom of movement of HIV-positive people," he said. "Besides, in many countries certificates can be bought or falsified."Mandatory testing does not protect from infection," Gardner said. "The Russian government is focusing on mass testing instead of information and education."Gardner noted that the United States requires similar testing for immigrants and that visitors must sign a form saying they do not carry an infectious disease.Denisenko said protection of Russian citizens from infection was the primary goal of the proposed legislation."Sex with a foreigner is 100 times more dangerous for a Russian than sex with a compatriot," Denisenko told a sniggering parliament. "Every HIV-positive person in Russia was infected by a foreigner."Nikolai Nedzelsky, president of the Names Foundation involved in AIDS education and social aid for HIV-positive people, dismissed that claim as "nonsense."Nedzelsky said that nothing about Russian health care had changed since 1989 when about 200 children were infected by non-sterile blood-transfusion equipment in several cities in Southern Russia.During the debate, deputies, some of them rowdy, displayed ignorance about the disease, which is now widespread among heterosexuals. Nationalist deputy Alexander Nevzorov demanded criminal punishment for gays, lesbians "and other disgusting perverts" because AIDS was, according to him, "primarily their disease."Vyacheslav Marychev of the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party grinned as he mentioned a female deputy now on a business trip to the Hague. "Who knows what she will bring back from there," he shouted before his microphone was shut off.