Meanwhile, in Russia

[Fife]

StrategyPage: Winning: No Country For Old Men Or New Mothers

Despite shrinking budgets (because of sanctions and lower oil prices) Russia declared major increases next year for programs that deal with declining birth rates and rising death rates. So far in 2018 for every hundred births there were 120 deaths. Even worse the number of births was down four percent compared to the same period in 2017. Similarly deaths were up nearly two percent.

Some of the increased population declines can be blamed on sanctions and low oil prices. The sanctions made dollars more expensive (to buy with rubles) and non-sanctioned imports like medicine became much more expensive. So the government imported a lot less medicine and that led to higher death rates, especially among the elderly who could no longer, for example, get flu vaccine each year. The reduced government income led to the closing of many rural clinics and hospitals, which was particularly bad for Siberia and the Far East where population decline was much higher since the 1990s because during Soviet times the government paid bonuses to those who would live there. After the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 those bonuses (plus the many rules governing who could live where) disappeared and so did a lot of the population. Since 1991 population declines of 20 percent or more were common in these areas and in some of the more inhospitable areas on the Pacific Coast, over 30 percent. As these areas emptied out a disproportionate number of older people were left behind in parts of the country that had less of everything, including new mothers and anyone able to help care for the elderly.

Another factor, especially since 2014, has been the increased use of cheaper (and often poisonous) homemade vodka. Similarly the corruption in the processed food industry continues to allow contaminated foods to be sold. Since the sanctions a lot more Russian professionals, including doctors and nurses, have left the country for better jobs elsewhere. The government has long recognized that the shrinking population means less economic growth and growing problems in keeping the military up to strength.

. . .

It’s somewhat different in the east; the five new nations created in what used to be Russian Central Asia and the Russian Far East. Chinese are moving in to fill jobs that Russians left behind. There are also lots of Chinese merchants, bringing in a wide variety less expensive goods. In Central Asia the Chinese are arriving in large numbers to build Chinese financed infrastructure projects (roads, railroads and the like). Many of those Chinese say, if they can, and become permanent residents. But for Russia itself, and Slav majority population, everything is fading away.

[GloryofGreece]

StrategyPage: Winning: No Country For Old Men Or New Mothers

Despite shrinking budgets (because of sanctions and lower oil prices) Russia declared major increases next year for programs that deal with declining birth rates and rising death rates. So far in 2018 for every hundred births there were 120 deaths. Even worse the number of births was down four percent compared to the same period in 2017. Similarly deaths were up nearly two percent.

Some of the increased population declines can be blamed on sanctions and low oil prices. The sanctions made dollars more expensive (to buy with rubles) and non-sanctioned imports like medicine became much more expensive. So the government imported a lot less medicine and that led to higher death rates, especially among the elderly who could no longer, for example, get flu vaccine each year. The reduced government income led to the closing of many rural clinics and hospitals, which was particularly bad for Siberia and the Far East where population decline was much higher since the 1990s because during Soviet times the government paid bonuses to those who would live there. After the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 those bonuses (plus the many rules governing who could live where) disappeared and so did a lot of the population. Since 1991 population declines of 20 percent or more were common in these areas and in some of the more inhospitable areas on the Pacific Coast, over 30 percent. As these areas emptied out a disproportionate number of older people were left behind in parts of the country that had less of everything, including new mothers and anyone able to help care for the elderly.

Another factor, especially since 2014, has been the increased use of cheaper (and often poisonous) homemade vodka. Similarly the corruption in the processed food industry continues to allow contaminated foods to be sold. Since the sanctions a lot more Russian professionals, including doctors and nurses, have left the country for better jobs elsewhere. The government has long recognized that the shrinking population means less economic growth and growing problems in keeping the military up to strength.

. . .

It’s somewhat different in the east; the five new nations created in what used to be Russian Central Asia and the Russian Far East. Chinese are moving in to fill jobs that Russians left behind. There are also lots of Chinese merchants, bringing in a wide variety less expensive goods. In Central Asia the Chinese are arriving in large numbers to build Chinese financed infrastructure projects (roads, railroads and the like). Many of those Chinese say, if they can, and become permanent residents. But for Russia itself, and Slav majority population, everything is fading away.

Sounds awful. We should be allied in at least a nominal way with Russia and Japan against China.

[nmoore63]

Why the fuck is their homebrew vodka poisonous?

Is this true, or is this #FakeNews?

[Fife]

Why the fuck is their homebrew vodka poisonous?

Is this true, or is this #FakeNews?

I can't speak for Ruskie homebrew, but I've had some of the white whiskey from the wrong side of the creek in Tennessee. There's some shit in there that will knock your country ass blind, no doubt.

Caveat ebrius, as they say in the big city.

[Martin Hash]

Methanol (fermented cellulose like grass and tree bark) will blind and even kill you.

[nmoore63]

Why the fuck is their homebrew vodka poisonous?

Is this true, or is this #FakeNews?

I can't speak for Ruskie homebrew, but I've had some of the white whiskey from the wrong side of the creek in Tennessee. There's some shit in there that will knock your country ass blind, no doubt.

Caveat ebrius, as they say in the big city.

Uncle Grand dads?