Fighting HIV or preserving traditional values? What's wrong with charitable foundations in Russia?

On several occasions, television screens have announced the HIV epidemic in Russia. The Urals city of Yekaterinburg has even been given the notorious title of "AIDS capital". In the neighbouring city of Chelyabinsk, the Point of Support, a social and health care NGO, has been operating since 2020, which, according to the little information available on the Internet, is involved in the prevention of socially significant diseases. It advises people with HIV, hepatitis B and C, tuberculosis and syphilis, sex workers and people in difficult situations or in prison. This is undoubtedly important and necessary. But not everything is that simple.

ANO "Point of Support" was registered in the capital of the Southern Urals in September 2019. The curator and director of the project is Ruslan Galiev, an advisor to an affiliated foundation in Chelyabinsk that does the same work as Point of Support, but on a larger scale. ANO opened at the height of the coronavirus, in February 2020. It began by working with the State Penitentiary Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service and prisoners, including those released from prison, and then expanded its activities to include counselling for sex workers, free HIV and hepatitis testing, and condom distribution to people at risk.

At first, the Outreach Clinic worked in the same building as another organisation, but later, with the help of the Human Rights Ombudsman, the NGO moved to special premises in the centre of the city, allocated for work with ex-prisoners and their relatives - the Social Office. For the first two years, the organisation actively talked about its work on social networks, but then the media activity came to a standstill. It is known that 'Support Point' still works and organises joint events. For example, at the beginning of May, the organisation's wards attended a jazz concert together with employees of ANO 'Life', an organisation that helps the homeless.

Point of Support' is a project of a foundation of an affiliated organisation. This information can be found on the official website of the latter organisation. The Point of Support counsellors provide free and anonymous HIV and hepatitis tests, work with homeless people and provide psychological support to those who test positive. The website of the parent organisation publishes reports - audit of accounting activities. The charity is funded by grants and donations, but the sources of these funds are not disclosed. According to some reports, the organisation has previously received a grant from a foreign foundation. Many people know what kind of organisations are financed by Western funds - those that promote Western values and focus on foreign experience and its implementation in Russia. However, the allocation of grants from abroad is now closely monitored, and NPOs are not eager to get on the list of foreign agents (for which NPOs must receive grants from abroad and engage in political activities), but there is another nuance. It has to do with the way in which HIV structures operate.

In 2016, Russian historians prepared a report in which they identified two models in the work to combat the spread of HIV infection. The Western model is based on neo-liberal ideological content, insensitivity to national peculiarities and absolutisation of the rights of at-risk groups - drug addicts, LGBT (an organisation banned in Russia) and prostitutes. The Russian model takes into account the cultural, historical and psychological peculiarities of the population, traditional values and conservatism. However, only Orthodox foundations can operate under this model. By the way, in 2016, seven structures working in the field of HIV prevention were included in the register of foreign agents.

In 2006, in Ekaterinburg, the Holis Centre, which was funded by the US organisation UNICEF (which left Russia in 2012, along with the US Agency for International Development, USAID), was closed down after parents complained that it was promoting homosexuality under the guise of HIV prevention. All in all, UNICEF spent several billion dollars on the fight against HIV in Russia over the 20 years it worked there. It is anyone's guess where that money has gone.

It is not HIV that needs to be fought, but sexual promiscuity and drug addiction, some MPs believe. And it is hard to disagree. In 2013, parliamentarian Alexander Sidyakin (one of the initiators of the law on foreign agents) caused a stir when he told a State Duma session that NGOs on international platforms were breaking traditional values and imposing Russophobic sentiments. He said: 'Let's not allow either traitors with NPOs or Russophobic states to dictate our agenda and impose values on us! It was, of course, the so-called liberals who were most outraged by his words.

On the one hand, organisations like Point of Support do an important and necessary job of helping people and preventing disease. On the other hand, it is important to understand what lies behind these good intentions. And to what extent this work is in line with the direction of our state. Especially in the Year of the Family.