The Demography of Russia: A Nation Succumbs to Despair

Chaos has long considered Russia to be a fascinating case of declining population and eventual collapse, although the country's current status as record oil-producer may mitigate this for some years. A fine article in the LA Times, a paper itself currently beset by entropic troubles, provides us with an excellent summary of just how bad things are in that dark place on the planet. Life expectancies are perched just above Afghanistan, the birthrate has sunk to well below replacement rate (and has been for years), much of the population lives in poverty and despair, and alcoholism and AIDS are the evil twins of death for much of the younger generation. Pair this article with Dimitry Orlov's previously posted and you have an interesting and forboding story.