‘Russia is Facing a Demographic Catastrophe but with Those Currently in Power, Nothing Else Could be Expected,’ Krupnov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 5 – When it comes to demography, and by implication much else besides, many Russian officials and experts continue to propose not real solutions to problems but rather made-up ones that will do nothing more than suggest that at least leaders in Moscow are concerned and allow the Kremlin not to change direction, Yury Krupnov says.

            The Moscow demographer says in his sharpest attack yet on the Russian authorities that as a result, Russia is facing a growing demographic catastrophe “but with the elites currently in power, nothing else could be expected,” elites he says who have created a demand for something that proved fatal at the end of Soviet times (svpressa.ru/society/article/497708/).

            Then, he says, there was a great demand for the generation of what came to be called “fictitious demonstrative production” (FTP) of ideas and proposals that were the simulacra of real recommendations and that allowed the Soviet regime to show that it was concerned but then not take any real action.

            The same thing is happening now, Krupnov continues. Indeed, if anything, the situation is even worse because there are so many more outlets for expressing opinions and the noise arising from the release and competition of such proposals is so great that the only beneficiaries are the top elite which then doesn’t have to do anything.

            As a result, all these proposals and suggestions “either directly support the existing state of affairs or are a smokescreen, demonstrating the alleged existence of some solutions and a show of concern, but in reality, they provide a reason for doing nothing,” one of the reasons the Kremlin tolerates their expression, Krupnov suggests.

            Demographically, “the situation is terrible because the country is dying out. By the end of the century if nothing changes and we continue to generate FTPs rather than something real,” Krupnov says, there will only be 70 million people left” in Russia. But given “the framework of the current model, with these political elites, nothing else can be expected.”