Russia's population has shrunk by more than half a million people this year, dipping to 143 million, the federal statistics agency said Friday.
Russia's population — the largest in Europe — has been declining steadily since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, with increased poverty, alcoholism, emigration and degradation of the health care system blamed for reducing birth rates and life expectancy.
Since the beginning of the year, the population went down by 506,400, the agency said on its Web site.
Why is Russia's population declining? Increased poverty? Well, Soviets were pretty poor and Russia's economy has been growing so I'd want to see stats on this claim. Alcoholism? Again, hardly a new thing compared to Soviet times. Emigration? Ok, that holds true since the state no longer holds the people hostage. Degradation of health care? You have to pretend that Soviet care was good but I'll concede that universal access to crappy care is gone so even that has made the situation worse. HIV may be a bigger factor here.
And when you consider Russia's population decline you must remember that the Moslem portions are increasing so the extent of the Russian decline is masked by the fast producing Moslem population. And since all the factors the article lists affect the Moslem population just like the Russians, how can they be the cause of the decline?
The UN has the predictable solution:
United Nations experts have urged Russian authorities to boost social spending to improve health care and prevent the population decline.
I don't think this is the key. I think the ethnic Russians are just demoralized. Once the rulers of a superpower empire, now they are virually a petro state like Saudi Arabia that happens to have the legacy of a superpower's weapons programs whose momentum is still giving Russia some military power. They pine for past glory and Putin does not do them any good by forging a foreign policy that reflexively tries to relive the glory days when all they can do is associate with the scum of the earth and only remind themselves that the Hot Line is getting a little dusty. Russia is an annoyance and not a threat.
Russia's leaders need to stop trying to hang on to a past they cannot reclaim and look forward to a future within their grasp. As part of the West they can achieve much and regain a vision of prosperity and influence.
If the Russian leaders continue to pretend they are a superpower, what can they look forward to?
In a United Nations Development Program report released this week, demographers predicted that Russia's population will fall to 100 million by 2050, and could even drop to 80 million.
If Iran, due to Russia's support, is still a mullahcracy in 2050, Tehran will have the nukes and numbers to invade the Caucasus and take over Russia's Moslem regions between the Caspian and Black Seas. Only Turkey will stand in Iran's way.
