Observant: Russerne er ved at dø ud
Observant
Kulturkrig, Storpolitik og generel sjov i gaden. Honest :-)
29 oktober, 2006
Russerne er ved at dø ud
Fra Los Angeles Times kommer en 3-delt serie om den russiske befolknings-implosion, der ifølge formanden for det russiske parlaments overhus vil føre til et fald i Ruslands befolkning fra 142 millioner i dag til kun 52 millioner i 2080. Fra "A Dying Population", den første del:
Welcome to Kstinovo, population one.
Antonina Makarova, 78, spends her days watching news and soap operas in her peeling wooden dacha, te only inhabited structure in two lanes of sagging cottages that once were a village. Her nearest neighbor, 80-year-old Maria Belkova, lives in adjacent Sosnovitsy, population two. But she can't hear anymore, and all in all, Makarova finds te television better company.
"All te houses here were filled with people. There was a cheese factory. But now everyone else has died. God has taken care of them, and he's still making me suffer," Makarova said. "Even te thieves have disappeared."
Te Tver region, along te upper reaches of te Volga River 130 miles north of Moscow, is dotted with more than 1,400 villages such as Kstinovo labeled nezhiloye — depopulated. Since 1989, te number of people here has shrunk by about 250,000 to about 1.4 million, with deaths outnumbering births more than 2 to 1. ...
Russia is rapidly losing population. Its people are succumbing to one of te world's fastest-growing AIDS epidemics, resurgent tuberculosis, rampant cardiovascular disease, alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, suicide and te lethal effects of unchecked industrial pollution.
In addition, abortions outpaced births last year by more than 100,000. An estimated 10 million Russians of reproductive age are sterile because of botched abortions or poor health. Te public healthcare system is collapsing. And many parents in more prosperous urban areas say they can't afford homes large enough for te number of children they'd like to have.
Te former Soviet Union, with almost 300 million people, was te world's third-most populous country, behind China and India. Slightly more than half of its citizens lived in Russia. Te country has lost te equivalent of a city of 700,000 people every year since te collapse of te Soviet Union in 1991, only partially offset by an influx of people from other former Soviet republics.
A country that sprawls across one-eighth of te globe is now home to 142 million people.
Te losses have been disproportionately male. At te height of its power, te Soviet Union's people lived almost as long as Americans. But now, te average Russian man can expect to live about 59 years, 16 years less than an American man and 14 less than a Russian woman.
Sergei Mironov, chairman of te upper house of Russia's parliament, said last year that if te trend didn't change, te population would fall to 52 million by 2080.
Anden del, "For te Sick, No Place to Turn" handler om det russiske sundhedsvæsens kollaps, mens tredje del - "Te Future Looks a Lot More Diverse" - omhandler muslimernes tiltagende andel af befolkningen. Et par smagsprøver:
Today's Russia includes seven predominantly Muslim regions. Ivan te Terrible conquered te first of them in te 16th century; te final pieces were small republics in te Caucasus with complicated names such as Ingushetia, Chechnya, Karachayevo-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan — te very places where Moscow now is battling Islamic insurrections.
Russian identity still is primarily cultural, remaining closely linked to te Russian language and te Orthodox Church. And te overall proportion of ethnic Russians has slipped only slightly, shrinking from 83% of te population to 79.8% over te last decade.
Demographic trends suggest that te decrease is likely to continue. Although most experts are skeptical, a former U.S. government expert on Russian nationalities recently predicted that Russia would have a Muslim majority within 30 years.
In addition to its own Muslim population, Russia is home to an estimated 10 million illegal immigrant workers from te largely Muslim former Soviet republics in Central Asia and te Caucasus. Te city of Moscow has swelled to 10.4 million people, and one-fifth of them are Muslims. Te Russian capital has te largest Muslim population of any city in Europe.
Along Moscow's wide boulevards, minarets rise next to te onion domes of Russian Orthodox churches. Across te country, there are 8,000 mosques, up from 300 in 1991, when Soviet strictures on religious observance were lifted. Markets more often than not are run by immigrants from Azerbaijan. Construction sites would come to a halt if not for low-paid workers from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Russian authorities have started a campaign to convince a nation historically hostile to foreign migration that its economic development, and perhaps its survival, depends on its opening its doors.
Te Kremlin in July announced that it would try to attract as many as 1 million Russian-speaking immigrants from former Soviet republics by offering citizenship and other benefits, particularly to those willing to settle in underpopulated regions. Te government also has proposed legalizing 1 million or more migrant workers, many of whom undoubtedly will be Muslim.
President Vladimir V. Putin, realizing that te country's survival is at stake, has exhorted te public to embrace a multicultural society. He has stepped up prosecutions for hate crimes. Recently, he launched a bid for Russia to join te Organization of te Islamic Conference, te premier political league of Muslim nations.
"Russia must be for Russians, Tatars, Mordovians, Ossetians, Jews, Chechens, for all our peoples and for te entire Russian nation," Vladislav Y. Surkov, te Kremlin's top political aide, told students in February.
Te response in some quarters has been violent. About 50 Asians, blacks and other minorities died in racially motivated attacks across te nation last year, including a 9-year-old African Russian girl who was stabbed in St. Petersburg in March.
In August, riots broke out in an industrial backwater town of 35,000 people near te Finnish border after a bar fight between ethnic Russians and Chechen migrants left two Russians dead.
Soon after, an estimated 2,000 Russians turned out at a rally to complain that corrupt officials in Kondopoga were "selling our town to aliens," a reference to te estimated 200 Chechens who have a large presence in markets.
After te rally, a mob set fire to te restaurant where te fight occurred, as well as to te central produce market and several kiosks, stores and cars owned by immigrants.
UPDATE
Tjetjenien bringes op som et eksempel i artiklen adskillige gange, blandt andet fordi anddelen af Tjetjeniens befolkning, der er russere er styrtdykket fra 27% til under 4%, i hovedstaden Grozny fra 60% til under 4%. Forklaringen er overraskende:
Chechnya's demographic picture is changing, in large part because of te casualties and ethnic separation resulting from two wars. Researchers think as many as 55,000 civilians have been killed, 35,000 of them ethnic Russians.
Dette sætter umiddelbart klagerne om "folkemordet på Tjetjenerne" i et noget andet perspektiv.
UPDATE II:
Fra optøjerne i Kondopoga. Russiske demonstranter knalder ruder i et tjetjensk tilholdssted:
OMOM (de russiske sikkerhedsstyrker) rykker ind, efter at demonstranterne har sat ild på bygningen:
posted by Henrik at 9:05 PM
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