Passengers on the sleek German-made trains racing through the Russian countryside between Moscow and St. Petersburg at 229 kilometers (137 miles) an hour can taste the high life. On the dining car’s menu is a half-bottle of French Champagne and a scoop of black caviar for 10,600 rubles ($163).
Bloomberg: Putin’s health care cuts spark protests in Russian heartland
A patient waits to be treated in the toxicology unit in a hospital treating drug users in the separatist-held capital of Donetsk on July 11, 2017. - Prior to the start of the conflict in April 2014, ex-Soviet Ukraine -- especially in its eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk -- was already battling against one of the most severe HIV epidemics in Eastern Europe. In 2015 international actors managed to stave off an imminent disaster by negotiating with Kyiv and the separatits to keep supplying antiretroviral drugs to thousands of HIV positive people in the separatist territories. Emergency funds were provided and the United Nations now estimates that about 10,000 adults and children with HIV in rebel-held areas are receiving the drugs.
