Russia is Dying
Murray Feshbach, Woodrow Wilson Center | October 7, 2008
We are too easily impressed by the Russian bear. ++ "Moscow remains bent on ignoring the devastating truth: The nation is not just sick but dying." ++ The population is declining, the economy is totally dependent on oil revenues, and the public health crisis "verges on the catastrophic." ++ AIDS, tuberculosis, alcoholism, heart disease, and smoking are killing Russians at an alarming rate. ++ Life expectancy for men is 59, ranking 166th world-wide. ++ The Kremlin's misplaced priorities must change.
Fri, Nov 7th 2008, 20:52
Member deleted
Is Russia growing? Is it growing out of its negative markers over certain issues?
The issues that would mark a state would be over Human Development Indices; its observation of Human Rights; its societal feature best marked by the degree of transparency of the functioning of its institutions and its strructure (though not confused with a state that has internalised corruption to a degree where corruption has turned transparent - as an anti-thesis to the idea and reality of the transparency of governance). All of this amidst its first responsibility - when one speaks of a state: the security of its populace from external threats, while it continues to grow in terms of the markers mentioned above and before.
Those same markers would also mark any other robust state, alongwith the more correct question: Is it growing? Just like the question: Is Russia Growing? The growth of a state and global security are inextricably inter-linked. May every state grow to be a giant.