Despite cutting the budget for Aids prevention in half this year, the Russia government has announced it is to launch a study on the spread of HIV amongst gay people and prostitutes.  

• Russian Government cut Aids prevention budget from $12m (£7.9m) to $6m (£3.9m) this year

• Around 703,000 as of November 2012 people are infected with HIV in Russia.

• 83% of HIV infections were registered amongst injecting drug users.

The Moscow Times is reporting that the Russian government is to conduct the first ever study of HIV amongst gay people and prositutes

The study will be conducted by the Federal Scientific Center for the Prevention and the Fight Against AIDS.

Vadim Pokrovsky states that the research on the spread of HIV through the gay community has been ‘difficult’ because ‘the group is not legally defined.’

The study would cost several million Russian Roubles and would be conducted through polling and testing in various regions.

This year the budget for Aids prevention was slashed in half from $12m to $6m – the Moscow Times reports apparently for ‘ideological reasons.’