This phony number is being retailed by partisan hacks claiming to source the figure from social media posts of all things. AKA tweets.
That sounds like the setup for a joke, but it's actually what this is based on. Trolls and bots post fake obituary reports on twitter, and then other trolls (and doubtless IC related psyop accounts) pretend to count each tweet as evidence of Ruzzian losses. Utter, complete, pure garbage.
You know, I rather regularly cite my sources and "show my work" in comments made on a range of subjects. When an assertion is made by someone else without a citation or reference, I often ask for such a citation or reference.
That seems to end the "give and take" with many Freepers who assert but simply refuse to cite sources.
In one or two instances, some play the competing sources game which allows one to dive deeper into things, and at the end of such few -- very -- exchanges, ad hominem is the last gambit.
Is it so unusual to ask someone who asserts anything to cite a source? This is of course a rhetorical question because I am sure we both would answer the same way.
Kudos on your "about" which recommends Hayek, Smith and many of our founding fathers.
If the query I lodged in this thread is answered, I will "cc" you, just for the informational value of perhaps getting a citation. Best wishes.