| Commercial sex is not banned in Russia, but prostitution
has not been legalized and, as a result, has become strongly criminalized.
Russian law prohibits only keeping brothels and involving the underage.
The main behavior features of this group are a great number of casual sex
partners, unprotected sex and the use of drugs.
The specific of the business makes those engaged
perform very visible in the public, but the number of CSWs in Russia is
not known, since shadow economy accounting is objectively difficult, and
due to a lack of experience in appropriate obvervations. According to economic
assessments, the aggregate turnover of this business in Russia was $950
million in 2000, and the number of CSWs - 25,000. But there are also other
estimates. According to AIDS-infoshare (2001), there are from 30,000 to
150,000 CSWs in Moscow alone, while the number of CSWs in Moscow estimated
at 90,000 has frequently featured in mass media. Prostitution is largely
a phenomenon of large cities. According to the estimates of the experts
of the territorial centers for AIDS prevention and control and the centers
for sanitary and epidemiological control, in cities CSWs account for 0.3%
to 0.4% of their entire population. Based on these data, the number of
CSWs in Russia may range from 500,000 to 700,000 people (or between 0.3%
and 0.4% of the urban population).
According to data from sample surveys HIV prevalence
among the CSWs group was 15% in Moscow in 2000, and to 62% in Togliatty
in 2001. At the same time, it remains at a very low level in many territories
of the country. A possible upper bound could be imagined from the data
on Central Africa (75% to 86% in Ethiopia, Togo and Zimbabwe).
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