Myths about Russia, and their refutation

Revenue and detailed statistics on the demographic situation in Russia, the economy and other important areas of our country.





Russia's population is "rapidly shrinking»

This is probably the most common mistake in the Western reports. In fact,
Russia's population is now, in early 2013,
slightly higher than 2006. Russia's population is rapidly decreased
in the late nineties and early two thousandth's,
but his fall stopped, and the population has stabilized.
Russia's population could begin to decline again in the future,
but at the moment it is still growing (albeit very slowly).



The Russian economy is experiencing "serious recession»
The idea that the Russian economy "collapses" or "blown away»,
the most common among pravokrylyh,
but it is also like the centrists such as Newsweek and The Economist.
While Russia is and can not be called economic hegemony,
its overall economic performance over the last ten years have been pretty decent,
especially when compared with the terrible
post-crisis figures of many former communist countries in Eastern Europe.
Maybe the Russian economy and begin to collapse sometime in the future,
but currently it is experiencing moderate growth.



Like the Soviet Union, Russia "is spending all his money on the army»

Pompous statement by the Russian government's intention to spend up to 2020 $ 700 billion
for the purchase of new weapons has led many to believe that Russia returns to the garrison state,
what it was under communism, when military spending accounted for 30% of GDP, and the country was reduced to poverty because of the insatiable
appetites "metal-eaters" from the Ministry of Defence. Although I agree that the Russian defense spending is slightly higher,
than they could be, the actual level of expenditure as a percentage of GDP is modest compared not only
with her own painful past, but even compared to the US (data from SIPRI and end 2010,
since this is the last year available).



Russian alcohol epidemic "continues unabated»

Russian drink a lot, no doubt about it. But, fortunately, they revel
to death much less than they did in the past.
The death rate from alcohol poisoning the rapidly declining
in recent years, and now it is even lower than it was in the midst of
Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign (during which Soviet
the government has done things like bulldozers leveling the vineyard).
The death rate from alcohol in Russia is still very,
It is very high compared with Western countries, but it is reduced.



In Russian "more abortions than children»

This has been true for a very long time, since the early 1960s to about 2007.
Abortion in Russia and in fact was the most popular method of contraception.
But without any pomp number of abortions in Russia
(which, incidentally, is still high compared with Western countries) has fallen sharply.



In general, these graphs show that:

1), Russia still has a lot of problems, and remains
highly problematic compared to developed Western countries.

2) business in Russia is actually quite fast improving.

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