Since launching his YouTube channel in 2017, ex-sports journalist Yuri Dud΄ has become one of the most prominent figures in Russian online media, known for interviewing politicians, musicians, journalists, and other famous faces. In his 2020 special “HIV in Russia,” he tackles one of Russia's most urgent public health problems. About one million Russians are known to be living with HIV, but experts estimate that this is only about 65% of the true number of cases.

Vadim Pokrovsky, longtime head of Russia's Federal AIDS Center, suggests to Dud΄ that Russia needs its own Magic Johnson, an HIV-positive celebrity to destigmatize the virus. The ferocious, witty HIV and gay rights activist Anton Krasovskii laments the harm done by Russia's rejection of scientific expertise and embrace of “alternative views.” Although the Ministry of Health understands the magnitude of the HIV epidemic, he explains, other officials claim that sinister Western forces such as the CIA are plotting to discredit Russia by spreading false rumors about an HIV epidemic. Meanwhile, sex education in school is illegal. Many government officials do not wish to promote condoms or any other form of contraception, which they perceive as counter to the state's campaign to raise the birth rate.

Modern treatment can suppress HIV so effectively that it is no longer even transmissible: Dud΄ interviews two serodiscordant couples who explain how this knowledge enabled them to conceive without fear. Since 1995, a network of governmental AIDS Centers has offered free HIV diagnostics and treatment, but there are only funds for half a million patients at a time. The rest must wait their turn. Periodic stock-outs due to inadequate funding and medication procurement systems are a source of continuous anxiety for patients, and risk reducing treatment effectiveness. With his trademark affable naivete, Dud΄ replies incredulously: “But we're a rich country!”

The combination of economic stress and cheap, ubiquitous street drugs gave rise to widespread injecting drug use in the 1990s. An HIV epidemic followed, first concentrated and then generalized. Dud΄'s interviewees are the ones who survived this devastating period (one woman he interviews in hospice died nineteen days after filming). But the upbeat pragmatism of the interviewees sends a hopeful message: it is easy to prevent HIV and to treat it, as long as we have the necessary knowledge and will. There is no sense of doom or fear, and there are no gritty shots of emaciated users shooting up in alleyways. This is a world of calm, sensible, well-informed people, taking care of themselves and others. The problem is ignorance—and the fact-hating Russian government.

“HIV in Russia” has over 21 million views on YouTube, with comments calling for it to be aired on Russian television and shown in schools. It is a masterclass in public health messaging, with clear explanations and practical advice that is repeated often. There's even a two-minute summary at the end, for those too impatient to watch the whole thing. Dud΄ and his interviewees have performed a valuable public service.