Bela Denisenko hopes it will not be approved by the Senate
"Segodnya", November 19, 1994, p.2
Aleksey KIRPICHNIKOV
Yesterday the Chair of a State Duma committee Bela Denisenko spoke at the press-conference on the Aids law, which was broadly discussed in the press. The discussion mainly concerned the article about obligatory medical examination. Among Russian citizens medical examination will be obligatory only for donors and expectant mothers, among the foreigners for those coming to Russia "for work, study and with other purposes". "Other purposes" mean that examination will be obligatory for the tourists as well.
Mrs.Denisenko told that the project proposed by the public health committee did not include any "other purposes". It was Duma that decided to include the corresponding amendment into the bill, which was done under the strong influence of medical lobby dealing with testing systems production and working in special medical centers. Mrs.Denisenko hoped that the Federation Council would decline the Aids law and that after some discussion these two notorious words would be excluded.
The other comments were as follows: the law concerns only the countries whose citizens need visas for traveling to Russia. That is why as far as Aids is concerned the CIS citizens have the same rights and duties as the Russians. The foreigners, refugees, etc. already living in Russia may be forced to be tested only in case they contaminated somebody. The foreigners coming to Russia will not be tested at the frontier: visas will be given only to those having shown a certificate confirming they are not infected. This concerns only the countries having with Russia an agreement about mutual certificates' acknowledgment. When the law comes into force, the citizens of states that do not have such agreements will be object of diplomatic negotiations.
Contaminated foreign citizens will be allowed to Russia on no account. Foreigners living in Russia and recognized as ill will be sent out. Being asked about investments and tourism reduction as a result of the law adoption, Mrs.Denisenko said: "If we do not take adequate measures now, we will later need no investments at all."