Neil Gerrard, Labour MP for Walthamstow, visited Moscow recently for talks about the growing crisis in HIV/AIDS infections in Russia. Mr Gerrard met Members of the State Duma (the Russian Parliament), officials at the Russian Federation Ministry of Health, and representatives of several Russian organisations working in the filed of HIV/AIDS.

He also met the British Ambassador to Russia and staff of the Department for International Development working in Moscow. In addition he was one of the speakers at a conference organised by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Committee on Health and members of the Russian State Duma.

British actress Julia Ormond was in Moscow at the time of the visit, and as part of the humanitarian work which she does, she took part in a number of events to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in Russia.

“This was returning a visit which I helped to organise last year when Members of the Russian State Duma visited the UK to look at policy in this country” said Mr Gerrard. “Since then there has been continued dialogue between members of the All Party Parliamentary Group on AIDS, which I chair, and a similar group of MPs which has been set up in the Russian State Duma.”

“By working together to develop ideas on best practice we believe we can make a contribution to the fight against HIV infection. The two groups wrote joint letters to Tony Blair and to President Putin in the run up to the G8 Conference in  Gleneagles earlier this year. Next year Russia will take over the presidency of the G8 from the UK, and we are looking now at how we can work together to ensure that HIV/AIDS continues to have a high priority during the Russian presidency. In particular we are discussing how we can develop more collaboration between Parliamentarians in Western Europe and in the states of the former Soviet Union to ensure that we have the best possible legislative framework for tackling HIV infection.”

“The rate of growth of HIV infection in Eastern Europe is extremely worrying, and it would be naïve to assume that this will have no effects on Europe as a whole, so it is in everyone’s interests that we develop the best possible working relationships.”

The photograph shows Neil Gerrard with Russian MP Mikhail Grishankov, and (left) Julia Ormond.

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