Trends, trends, trends. From Putin’s bully pulpit he has been saying there are too many abortions. He is not in favor of increased abortions, unlike our current President.
Anyway, I see demographics rebounding in Russia and that is the number one gauge of the direction a nation is going.
Compile the low Birth Rate in Russia with a low Life Expectancy, the highest Abortion Rate in the world, and a decling GDP, there is no positive trend.
If someone were to show me those statistics and not tell me the name of the country, I would think those statistics were that of an Eastern Bloc state in the 1970’s or of an authoritarian Sub Saharan nation in the middle of a famine or total war. As for short term and long term trends, Brazil and Mexico are far better positioned than Russia.