russia
HIV/AIDS in Russia
EKATERINBURG, RUSSIA, 2002. Yekaterinburg, 900 miles SE of Moscow, 260Km short of Siberia. "The City Without Drugs", who have ZERO tolerance for drug abuse. The Organisation removes drug users from the streets to detention centres, where they are handcuffed to a bunkbed for 1 month, after which they are expected to work for the businessmen for a further 11 months, without pay. The organisation beat new users to get information on dealers, and then in association with the Russian Militia they force users into sting operations to catch the dealers they have betrayed. The City Without Drugs started working in partnership with the Militia due to public demand/support for the organisation. PICTURED: Militia Captain Sergey takes up an observation point on the house where Mica has gone to buy Heroin. (Photo by David Gillanders)
russia
In the late 90’s I read an article in the Sunday Times about a city in Russia, Ekaterinburg, that had declared a zero tolerance stance on intravenous drug use. The approach seemed extreme – and the more I looked into it the more I became intrigued.
It also seemed that Russia had an almost underground problem with very fast rates of infection of HIV.
A few months later I got on a plane for the first of many trips to and from Russia and then Ukraine over the next decade or so.
Ultimately I ended up meeting and getting somewhat sucked into the lives of a group of homeless children in Ukraine – but looking through contact prints from yesteryear made me want to pull together an edit from my first couple of years work in Russia.