Half of Russia’s Population has Lived Its Entire Politically Conscious Life Under Putin, Minkin Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 29 – Since Vladimir Putin came to power, 50 million Russians have died and another 20 million were under 10 years of age when became president, Aleksandr Minkin says. That means that “for half of the population,” Putin’s rule has been all they have ever known.

            As a result, they have changed radically, the Russian journalist says; and the longer the Kremlin leader remains in place, the greater the proportion of the Russian population will have lived under him and the more the Russian nation will change (t.me/meankeen/698 reposted at echofm.online/opinions/putin-nad-rossiej-25-let-dlya-poloviny-naseleniya-eto-vsegda).

            Those profound realities have emerged relatively slowly and so they are often ignored, but anyone concerned about what Russia is now and will become needs to focus on them because they are likely to cast a dark shadow on the country for decades even after Putin passes from the scene.

            That is because these roughly 70 million Russians now and obviously several million additions to that number each year are going to form a large share of the population well into the 21^st century, one even larger because the demographic problems of the Russian Federation are continuing to drive the total population of the country down.