Notebook

Half-a-Million Less

The Russian population declined by 430,000 in 1996, totaling 147.5 million at the end of the year, the Russian State Statistics Committee reported. In 1996, the death rate dropped from 15 to 14.4 per thousand, while the birthrate fell from 9.5 to 9.1. Russian population figures started their decline in 1992, just after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which brought a general decline in living standards.

Pacific is not Calm

Russia’s Pacific fleet is in dire straits due to a lack of financing, and operates with less than half the combat ships and personnel it did four years ago, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported. The Pacific fleet, based in Vladivostok, has just 140 combat ships, compared to 335 four years ago. The fleet is owed one trillion rubles ($180 million) by the government and, as a result, is unable to pay wages to sailors and other personnel.

Scrambling for Patrons

In Klyuchi, a poor village in southern Siberia, movie tickets cost only 800 rubles (15 cents). But, since many local farm workers have not been paid for months, the village’s cinema was left scrambling for business. Then the enterprising cinema owners came up with a plan to keep their theater full: allow farmers to pay for tickets with eggs. For only two eggs, movie fans can now receive a ticket. Once again, the theater is full. There is no report on what the cinema owners plan to do with the eggs.

Russian AIDS Epidemic?

The number of Russians infected with the HIV virus is rising sharply, especially among drug addicts, and the country faces an AIDS epidemic, says Mikhail Narkevich, a coordinator of Russia’s AIDS Control Program. Narkevich said that the number of newly-registered HIV carriers in the first 10 months of 1996 was equal to the total incidence of the virus since the disease was first reported in the former Soviet Union in 1987.  At present, there are around 2,081 people carrying the HIV virus, while 245 have the full-blown disease. It is estimated that no less than 60 people in Russia become infected with the HIV-virus every day, Narkevich said. These figures are still low in comparison with Russia’s general population, but medical experts predict that the numbers could soon change for the worse, because there has been an overall increase in sexually-transmitted diseases, such as syphilis.