What is wrong with this picture?

[old-reb]

The Russian cabinet has approved proposals for arange of measures aimed at stemming the country's catastrophic population decline.

On Thursday it discussed
plans to encourage women
to have more children,
prevent illness and foster
immigration.

Critics have said the
proposals are reminiscent
of Soviet planning and filled
with empty promises.

Russia's population has been falling dramatically since the end of communism, spurred by heavy drinking, poor nutrition and health care as well as environmental pollution and low safety standards.

A report produced for the cabinet said the population fell by 0.5% in 1999 and that it could be down 2.8 million by 2005. Russia's northern regions have suffered especially badly - the arctic Chukotka region's population hasfallen by 50% over the past 10 years.

National security threat

"The decrease of the able-bodied population of the Russian Federation is not just a social problem, it is a problem of whether our state will develope
sucessfully or unfavourably," said Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. President Putin has repeatedly declared the fight against population decline one of his top priorities, saying the current situation could jeopardise national security. The number of men dying from alcoholism is reportedto be on the rise. In 1999 male life expectancy was already under 60 years. The problem may be compounded if, as is predicted, the Aids virus takes hold and causes furtherpopulation decline.

Where is the promise of wealth like other democratic nations?
All the knowledge and great minds of the world and no one can bring Russia together?
Captilism has brought the opposite of what it promised.
Old-reb

[Lilly]

Hi Gene!

Where did you get that information? I would like to read into it further. My sources say that it is misquoted.

LillyNomad
My best regards to you and the l'il lady.

[old-reb]

Hi Lilly,
I first read the article in the paper then I went to BBC and did a search on, "population Russia". I believe it was the first article listed.
Gene

[glock_girl]

I heard a similar story late one night on the 24 hour news station here. I didn't catch it all, but what are their plans to increase population? How can you light a fire under these people??

Lilly? Any ideas??

[old-reb]

Clock girl,
I like your formula for personal success. It works for me. On population I also read that South Korea, Indionesia and many other nations were having a problem with declining populations. A friend of mine complains about having 2 children that he pays child support to. He could have a new truck for what those kids cost him. Poor guy. I think the US population grows from other countrys people coming here.
Gene

[Dr_Woland]

The problem with declining population in Russia is extremely serious. The population has fallen by 10% in the last ten years... the forecast is that the rate of decline will increase over the next 10 years.

The most serious problem is in the Far East, where population-drop is at a much higher level than anywhere else in the country. The reason for concern is that whilst rural communities in the Far East are drying-up (as people move to the bigger cities of Russia's West in search of better-paid jobs and conditions, and a climate that is more amenable than in the Far East).... across the border, China's population is swelling massively. I heard on Ekho Moskvy yesterday an example from Blagoveschensk - a city which sits on the Amur River, and looks-across at the Chinese city of Hei-Hei on the opposite bank, only 400m away. Until 25 years ago, there was no city of Hei-Hei at all (Blagoveschensk was founded in the 1860's). Now the population of Hei-Hei outnumbers that of Blagoveschensk by a 10:1 ratio.

Russian immigration officers estimate that as many as a Million Chinese nationals are living illegally in the Far East region alone (taking advantage of Russia's liberalised economic system to start and run private businesses - mostly importing cheap goods from relatives in China to Russia).

I was on a train across the China/Russia border at Chita (Far East) 2-3 years ago, coming from the Chinese side. Soon after we crossed into Russia, we entered a tunnel, and the lights went out, and the train stopped. "What's happened?" I asked some Russian guys on board. "Ah, just smugglers". Smugglers were piling huge numbers of bags of goods against the tunnel wall in the darkness. Train staff, and Customs Officers were helping them. After the train pulled-away, I was told, a truck would be driven into the tunnel, and loaded-up with the contraband goods - out of sight. Further down the line, more Chinese were waiting in the bushes at pre-organised points, and their relatives on board the train would throw huge bags of goods from the moving train to them.

Russia is now considering an organised Immigration policy, but directed at "former soviet" citizens in places like Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Kazakstan, where living standards and wages are far below Russia's. There are unknown numbers of people in this category already living and working in Russia... this would simply be an "immigration amnesty" for those already here, although it might encourage others too.

And I'm here as well :-)

Dr W.

[Dr_Woland]

Russian Population Takes Its Biggest Plunge Yet

By Oksana Yablokova
STAFF WRITER

MOSCOW - Russia's shrinking population took its largest post-Soviet drop in 1999, with decreasing immigration coming on top of a surplus of deaths over births.

The official population is now 145.6 million, down by 0.49 percent, or 716,900 people during the first 11 months of 1999 compared to the same period in 1998.

The figures were reported Tuesday by Interfax, which cited the State Statistics Committee.

According to the report, besides extraordinarily high death rates and a low birth rate, decreasing immigration and an aging population were behind the latest phase in Russia's health and demographic crisis.

A total of 1,117,000 of Russians were born from January through November of 1999, against 1,953,000 deaths, while during the same period in 1998, 1,179,900 people were born as opposed to 1,815,100.

Such statistics are usually calculated using information from birth and death registration across Russia.

Immigration to Russia, mainly from the Commonwealth of Independent States countries, slowed over the past year. The flow of immigrants slid from 478,600 people during the first 11 months of 1998 to 341,500 people during the same period of 1999.

The drop in the first 11 months of 1999 of 716,900 people or 0.49 percent, was almost double the decrease of the same period in 1998 of 365,600 people.

The statistics agency said Russia's population was 148 million in 1990. It fell 0.02 percent in 1992, 0.2 percent in 1993, 0.04 percent in 1994, 0.2 percent in 1995 and 0.3 percent in 1996, 1997 and 1998.

According to all estimates performed by local and Western experts, Russia's population is likely to continue to decline in the future, which may have serious consequences for Russia's economy and position in the world.

"Russia is on the verge of a demographic crisis because we don't have very many children being born," Valentin Pokrovsky, the head of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, said in an interview to The Moscow Times earlier this month.

"If this trend does not change in 15 to 20 years, it will be very difficult for the country, because for each working person, there will be one or two people who cannot work," he said.

Experts have argued about the exact combination of reasons for the decline, but most point to Russia's high rate of alcohol consumption, especially among men, who lag far behind women in life expectancy. In one 1993 survey, 80 percent of Russian men said they drank alcohol, and other studies have shown that average consumption for both sexes is 400 grams per day, or three bottles of vodka a week.

Russia has an astonishingly high number of deaths from accidental alcohol poisoning, with 35,000 compared to some 300 a year in the United States, which has almost twice the population and a fair number of heavy drinkers as well. Heavy smoking and a fatty diet also contribute to high rates of heart disease.

Other experts point to "ecocide": the poisoning of the air, land and water by the Soviet authorities, and to the collapse of the Soviet-era health care system. Death rates from injuries suffered in auto accidents, for instance, are said to be several times higher than in European countries.

Some researchers have even suggested that stress and hopelessness play a role in early death. Although the dislocations from the fall of communism are often cited, life expectancy for men has been falling since 1964.

The falling population will strain the country's ability just to maintain economic output at its current level, warned Georgetown University demographer Murray Feshbach in a recent article.

Others have also estimated that Russia's economic ranking and geopolitical standing will continue to fall as its health crisis continues.