A new UNICEF report on the ‘underground HIV epidemic affecting children in Eastern Europe and Central Asia‘ documents the role of drug use in HIV contraction, the abandonment of children born to HIV-positive mothers, and Russia’s work against the discrimination of children with the virus.  The Moscow Times suggests that the report’s focus implies that these regions ‘are the only places in the world where the HIV epidemic is growing‘.  A North Caucasus hydropower plant has been the victim of a suspected terrorist attack, with two security guards killed in an explosion.  Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promptly demanded that the plant be repaired as soon as possible, and for emergency measures to ensure that supplies were not disrupted.  The BBC has details of the attack.  The Strategy 31 campaign, which files routine applications for opposition protest rallies with the Moscow mayor’s office, is celebrating a court decision that ‘effectively admitted that the Moscow authorities’ refusal to sanction Strategy 31 rallies is politically motivated‘, says Other Russia party member Aleksandr Averin.  Is the party’s exposure this week in the ‘official government mouthpiece‘ newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta a cause for celebration or a ‘technical formality‘?