Belarus, Russia, Tajikistan, Crimea, and the Transdniester region of Moldova, are the worst countries regarding violations of journalists' rights, according to Panfilov. He also pointed out violations of media rights in Tatarstan, where a June presidential decree forbids publishing information and statements insulting the republican president and other state employees. Twice as many instances of HIV infections were reported in Russia during the first six months of 1996 as in the same period of 1995, according to Vadim Pokrovskii, the director of the Russian Center for the Battle with AIDS, ITAR-TASS reported on 22 June. There have been 1,269 registered cases of HIV infection in the country overall since 1987, Ekspress Khronika reported. The cities with the greatest number of infections are Nizhnii Novgorod, Krasnodar, Saratov, Tyumen, and Kaliningrad.
Drug users are the main means for spreading the disease.
Without a public education campaign, experts fear that there will be as many as 100,000 cases by the year 2000. Workers at the Leningradskaya nuclear power plant in St. Petersburg resumed protest action on 22 July, Izvestiya reported. The trade union committee said that the protests will not affect the plant's security, since the action takes place after working hours in the station's conference hall. This problem has been known for months, but the IMF delayed action until after the presidential elections. The precise conditions of the IMF loan have not been made public, and there seems to be disagreement between the IMF and the Russian government over how to classify certain types of spending and receipts.