‘Traditional values’ as a cure: The biopolitics of HIV in Putin’s Russia

This article examines the biopolitical dimensions of Russia's response to HIV within the ideological framework of 'traditional values' promoted by the Putin administration since the early 2010s. Through a discourse analysis of state-affiliated expert rhetoric and policy documents, the study elucidates how HIV has come to be framed as a moral, political, and national security threat, rather than a public health crisis. It argues that the Kremlin's turn to conservative, exclusionary frames has facilitated the externalisation of HIV as a problem resulting from the imposition of "Western" values and the "risky behaviour" these values allegedly promote. The paper situates these discursive features within the broader contexts of authoritarian neoliberalism, securitisation, and necropolitics, highlighting the link between the discursive stigmatisation of marginalised groups and the systematic withdrawal of resources from HIV treatment and prevention. By so doing, the Russian government enacts a sovereign biopolitics through which access to evidence-based care is increasingly denied to people and groups whom the state constructs as a 'threat' to society.