Paul Goble
Staunton, Aug. 6 – Many Moscow officials and commentators have expressed concern that the mass return of Russian will lead to a crime wave, but they may represent another and even more serious problem: many in the Russian army in Ukraine are infected with HIV and Hepatitis C and aren’t being treated by the military.
According to an investigation published by the Carnegie Endowment, the number of HIV infections in the Russian military rose by 20 times between the start of Putin’s expanded invasion of Ukraine and the end of 2024 and shows no sign of slowing down (carnegieendowment.org/russia-eurasia/politika/2025/07/russia-war-hiv-epidemic).
As a result of this epidemic in the invasion force and the spread of other diseases among Russian troops as well, the Endowment study says, “the demographic and economic consequences will be felt for decades and may even prove more destructive than the consequences of the invasion in Ukraine.”
What makes that conclusion ever more likely is that Russian media outlets are reporting that Russians with HIV aren’t getting the tests and medicines they need, a situation that is likely to worsen when the number of people with that disease return and add to their numbers (meduza.io/news/2025/08/07/vedomosti-v-16-regionah-rossii-patsienty-s-vich-zhaluyutsya-chto-im-otkazyvayut-v-testah-na-immunnyy-status-ih-nuzhno-provodit-kazhdye-polgoda).
Some Russian commentators are raising the alarm, concerned not only about the impact of infected returning veterans but also about the way in which these epidemics will make it more difficult to recruit more soldiers (istories.media/news/2025/08/06/minoboroni-ne-boretsya-s-epidemiei-gepatita-c-i-vich-v-armii-pozhalovalas-propagandistka-kashevarova/).
No comments:
Post a Comment