Changes in Diet Behind 30 Percent Rise in Mortality Rates among Khabarovsk’s Numerically Small Peoples, Experts Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 2 – Healthcare officials in Khabarovsk Kray report that mortality rates among the numerically small indigenous nations of that region are up by 30 percent, the result they suggest of problems with access to healthcare, accidents, and poor lifestyle choices such as smoking and alcohol.

            But independent experts say that a major cause is to be found in the change of diets of these populations that has led to an explosion of diabetes, often untreated, even among children (transsibinfo.com/news/2023-06-02/na-30-vyrosla-smertnost-sredi-predstaviteley-kmns-v-habarovskom-krae-2944895).

            These specialists say that the failure to provide fish to populations for whom that food was a major part of the diet has led to “degradation and as a result to extinction,” a useful reminder that in addition to Putin’s optimization campaign, these people are victims of a general trend toward a very different diet than the one these peoples are used to.

            That factor is seldom discussed as lying behind the demise of these peoples; but now their approach to extinction is so obvious that more experts are focusing on it. In the latest census, they note, “for the first time since the 19^th century,” the number of all these peoples, with on exception (the Negidals), fell.