When American host Larry King asked the «national leader» of Russia what happened to the submarine «Kursk,» in which 118 of his military personnel died a painful death, he cynically replied: «The same can already be said about many areas of life in this unfortunate country that brings misery to others. In particular, its demographics, the turning point of the disastrous trends that pro-government propagandists boasted about a few years ago.
Very depressing demographic data became known at the beginning of 2018. However, they are now being discussed not only in open opposition circles, but also in quasi-Kremlin media, which are sometimes allowed to vent their frustration with the government. A few days ago, for example, Moskovsky Komsomolets published an article with the revealing title «Russia is dying: authorities named an unexpected cause of the demographic crisis». The second part of the title does not correspond to reality — of course, the authorities did not name such a cause, because that would mean admitting the complete failure of their policies. However, the author of the article did not mention it either, but let’s go in order.
First, some general information: «In January-August 2018, according to Rosstat, the natural population decline (excess of deaths over births) amounted to 169.1 thousand people, which is already significantly more than for the whole of 2017 (135.8 thousand people). However, the sad part of the current situation is not even in this — after all, we have seen a natural population increase in the 2010s only for three years: in 2013 — by 24 thousand, in 2014 — by 30.3 thousand, in 2015 — by 32 thousand people (these data are provided in the main areas of the Government of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2024, approved this year). Again, it has been a long time since the population of Russia has decreased in absolute terms. We have seen it…»
Then the author enters into a polemic with ruthless Kremlin propagandists who explain these results as consequences of the 1990s, against which the current regime positions itself as an era of chaos, lawlessness, poverty, and decay, even though it was born out of those very 1990s and is the blood of their blood and the flesh of their flesh. He rightly points out that such an explanation undermines their own propagandistic argument, since during the prosperous Putin years they boasted about successfully dealing with the consequences of the 1990s: «Let’s think about how it turns out that the infamous 1990s did not have a negative impact on the country’s demographics in 2013-2015, when, as mentioned above, a natural population increase was recorded and then suddenly began to have a negative effect?»
After that, the author reveals an open secret — it turns out that in recent years, during which a new demographic decline occurred, the standard of living of the Russian population has significantly declined: «In 2014-2017, according to Rosstat, the real disposable income of the population decreased by about 11%. In the first half of 2018, it seemed that this negative trend had finally changed, but in August 2018, Rosstat again recorded a decrease in real incomes by 0.9% in annual terms, and in September the decline accelerated to 1.5%.»
The author did not have the courage to go further and went into lamentations such as «how is this possible?», «what is happening?», «how long will this go on?» and so on, but at least we thank this quasi-Kremlin media (by the way, its permanent owner and editor-in-chief is Pavel Gusev, who rose to prominence in the 1990s, serving the then authorities, just like Putin, Zolotov and others) for drawing attention to the problem itself.
We would like to remind you that as early as in 2016, in an article entitled «Russia’s new budget: guns instead of butter», we wrote about how the ruling regime is cutting expenses for the support of its population and the necessary spheres of its life in order to increase its military adventures. Let’s not forget that sanctions were also imposed on Russia in response to its regime’s aggressive actions on the international stage, including the seizure of foreign territories, but they fell on the shoulders of ordinary Russians (or rather, were placed there by this regime).
Today, representatives of this regime, in the form of its deputies, ministers, etc., more and more often allow themselves to say openly that the authorities do not ask their subjects to have children, or that it is not the state that owes the people, but the people that owes the state, and so on. Well, why be surprised, dear Russians? In March 2011, teenagers from Syria’s Daraa took to the streets with anti-Assad slogans, just as Russian teenagers are now staging «Putin is a thief» flash mobs. In response, these 18 teenagers were brutally tortured to death in a police station, and when their fathers arrived, they were told: «Go away, have more children, and if you can’t, bring us your wives, we’ll help you.» And the people rose up. And it was Russian troops that were sent to suppress this uprising, along with pensions, benefits, and investments in the social sphere of Russians. The result was, among other things, not only the quick deaths of thousands of Syrians, but also, as it turned out, the slow deaths of Russians themselves who supported this policy or dared not speak out against it.