Ngos and Illicit Drug Policy Change in the Russian Federation: 2010-2013 [Doctoral Thesis]

COPYRIGHT AND USE OF THIS THESIS This thesis must be used in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. Reproduction of material protected by copyright may be an infringement of copyright and copyright owners may be entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. Section 51 (2) of the Copyright Act permits an authorized officer of a university library or archives to provide a copy (by communication or otherwise) of an unpublished thesis kept in the library or archives, to a person who satisfies the authorized officer that he or she requires the reproduction for the purposes of research or study. The Copyright Act grants the creator of a work a number of moral rights, specifically the right of attribution, the right against false attribution and the right of integrity. You may infringe the author’s moral rights if you: - fail to acknowledge the author of this thesis if you quote sections from the work - attribute this thesis to another author - subject this thesis to derogatory treatment which may prejudice the author’s reputation For further information contact the University’s Copyright Service. sydney.edu.au/copyright NGOs and illicit drug policy change in the Russian Federation: 2010-2013 Andrey Zheluk University of Sydney 2014 This thesis is submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 1 “Хотели как лучше, а получилось как всегда.” Виктор Черномырдин. Председатель правительства РФ. 6 августа 1993 г. “We'd hoped for the best, but things turned out just as they always do.” Victor Chernomyrdin Prime Minister of the Russian Federation 6th August 1993. 2 Preface 1 i. Abstract In the decade to 2010, international initiatives directed at changing Russian illicit drug policy gained considerable momentum. However from 2010 official Russian government ambivalence evolved into open hostility directed against foreign ideas and against donor funded NGOs. By 2013, large scale donor-funded programs directed at reducing the social and individual harms associated with illicit drug use became effectively unimplementable in Russia. This thesis frames contemporary Russian illicit drug policy as an intractable policy problem. This thesis covers the period 2010-2013. The period 2010-2013 was marked by rapid political change in Russia. This period spanned the relatively liberal period of President Medvedev's term. During 2010-12, Russian civil society was increasingly active, and government protests frequent. The period of this thesis also spans the first year of President Putin's third term. During 2013, the Russian government progressively increased controls over civil society and independent media. However, in early 2014 Russia commenced an active media campaign against the United States, EU and NATO, and started military operations in Ukraine. This thesis originated from my work over many years, firstly as a journalist, and then as a consultant on international HIV donor programs across the former USSR. The thesis describes the recent period of the growing imperviousness of Russian decision making to conventional western norms. The main objective of this thesis is to establish if any non-government initiatives directed at illicit drug policy change were politically feasible in Russia between 2010 and 2013. In order to address this overarching objective, I sought to answer the following research questions: 2 1. What framed the possibilities and limits of political feasibility of drug policy initiatives that relied on international funding sources? 2. What political and other structures framed the feasibility of domestically funded non- government drug policy initiatives? 3. Contemporary Russia has presented unique barriers to the application of conventional methods of researching illicit drug policy. What novel data sources and methods might frame these limits? This thesis examines Russian drug policy from a pragmatic perspective. It examines both internationally and domestically funded civil society actors to identify what worked to influence Russian drug policy in the recent past. This thesis consists of a series of exploratory case studies that offer a rich "bottom up" description of the contemporary Russian context. It proposes mechanisms that may allow sustainable collaboration between donors, researchers, and Russian civil society organisations in this new, largely unknown policy space. These case studies examine the general pathways by which changes to contemporary Russian illicit drug policy may be facilitated from outside of Russia. In these case studies, I do not seek to make causal claims. Rather, the findings from this thesis may be considered as a starting point for generating and testing new hypotheses about the implementation of politically feasible donor funded policy change initiatives in Russia today. 3 In this thesis, I sought to identify patterns of politically feasible interventions in an environment where conventional analyses had failed. The analytic approach in this thesis involves the identification of consistent patterns of activity through case studies. The identified patterns of activity may then serve as the targets for further analysis by international donors and research organisations to determine if a causal relationship exist in each case. It is the systematic aggregation of patterns of “what works” within a specific context that may in turn reframe the otherwise apparently intractable problem of Russian illicit drug policy. The thesis describes novel data sources and methods. These methods will allow international researchers to continue gathering data despite increasing constraints on field research in contemporary Russia. Finally, from the vantage point of 2014, this thesis proposed a rationale for maintaining international engagement with Russian civil society actors in an increasingly complex and uncertain political context. A postscript chapter was added to this thesis in June 2015. This postscript accounts for the rapid deterioration of relations between Russia and high income liberal democracies following the Russian military interventions into Ukraine in early 2014. Security tensions characterised the relationship between Russia, the EU and United States during 2014-15. However, it is inevitable that these security tensions will diminish over time. As a consequence, I believe the original premise behind this research, and my conclusions remain sound. Cautious international engagement with Russian organisations through public health research initiatives may lead to a reduction in the social and individual harms associated with illicit drug injecting, and facilitate the continuing evolution of Russian illicit drug policy over time. 4 ii. Published papers arising from this thesis Chapter 6. Zheluk A, Gillespie JA, Quinn C Searching for Truth: Internet Search Patterns as a Method of Investigating Online Responses to a Russian Illicit Drug Policy Debate J Med Internet Res 2012;14(6):e165 DOI: 10.2196/jmir.2270 PMID: 23238600 Chapter 8. Zheluk A, Quinn C, Hercz D, Gillespie JA Internet Search Patterns of Human Immunodeficiency Virus and the Digital Divide in the Russian Federation: Infoveillance Study J Med Internet Res 2013;15(11):e256 DOI: 10.2196/jmir.2936 PMID: 24220250 Chapter 9. Zheluk A, Quinn C, Meylakhs P Internet Search and Krokodil in the Russian Federation: An Infoveillance Study J Med Internet Res 2014;16(9):e212 DOI: 10.2196/jmir.3203 PMID: 25236385 Journal of Medical Research (JMIR) Thompson Reuters impact factor 2013 = 4.7 (5 year IF: 5.7) 5 iii. Non- peer reviewed publications arising from this thesis Three published papers are incorporated into this thesis. The following publications are not formally part of this thesis. They are publications in which I played the leading or significant contributing role while enrolled as a doctoral candidate. These publications demonstrate my engagement with illicit drug policy in Russia and other formerly Soviet countries. Journalism 1. Zheluk A. The Children of Perestroika. ABC Radio National. [Radio]. 20 August 2005. [Cited 29 September 2014]. Available at: abc.net.au/radionational/programs/europeans/the-children-of- perestroika/3619786. 2. Zheluk A. and Meylakhs P. The rise and fall of Russia’s ‘flesh-eating drug’ krokodil. [Internet]. The Conversation. 24 September 2014. [Cited 29 September 2014]. Available at: theconversation.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-russias-flesh-eating-drug-krokodil-31736. 3. Zheluk A. and Meylakhs P. The rise and fall of the 'flesh-eating zombie drug'. [Internet]. New Zealand Herald. Friday September 26 2014. [Cited 29 September 2014]. Available at: nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11331903. 6 Reports 1. Birgin R, Burns K, Burrows D, Zheluk A. Measuring Coverage of HIV Prevention and Care Services for Injecting Drug Users. UNODC. Vienna 2007. 2. Zheluk A and Burrows D. Drug Demand Reduction Project (DDRP) Best Practice Collection – (Central Asia). [Internet]. USAID. Washington. 2007. [Cited 12 July 2014]. Available at: aidsprojects.com/resources/publications/drug-demand-reduction-project/ • Overview of the DDRP Model • Using a Unique Identifier Code in HIV prevention and care services for drug users in Central Asia • Youth Power Centres • Youth Positive Development • Sister to Sister • Break the Cycle • Drug Free Social Spaces • Drug Demand Reduction Education and Referral of Migrants • Treatment Readiness for Drug Users • Drug Free Treatment and Rehabilitation for Drug Users 7 Selected conferences 1.Zheluk A, Burrows

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