Average life expectancy in Russia does not reach 65 years of age. Last year 233,000 people died prematurely and at the present time the Russian population consists of 144.2 million persons, a minimal figure in comparison with the demographic size of other countries. “We are facing a choice that will determine whether our country will exist or not in the future”, declared Patriarch Alexis II to a recent conference dedicated to demographic development in Russia, during which the above figures were announced. Over the last fifteen years, the mortality rate has consistently outstripped the birth rate, but what is worrying the experts even more is the low life expectancy of the Russian population: men reach an average of only 58-59, women 72. The main causes of death include alcoholism, drug addiction and the illnesses and accidents they cause. Also present at the conference was the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, who sought to downplay the problem. Patriarch Alexis II expressed greater anxieties. He sees in the demographic crisis “the abandonment of the highest moral values of the population”. “Russia he said has gone through far more difficult periods at the economic level, but has overcome them because she was a morally sound country. People saw an inestimable value in the family and, irrespective of the difficulties, brought many children into the world”.
