Russia - light and dark colors
The Russian Federation is the largest country in the world with many valuable resources. However, during the 18 years of Mr. Putin's rule, Russia still has to face many socio-economic difficulties due to both subjective and objective factors.
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| Russia's economy has been struggling since 2014 due to falling oil prices and Western sanctions. Here, President Putin observes meat prices in Moscow. Photo: Ria Novosti |
143.4 millionis the population of the Russian Federation. Since 2009, Russia's population has increased again after many years of decline when it reached the threshold of 148.689 million people in 1992.
Since Vladimir Putin took power, the birth rate, which had fallen sharply since 1987, has risen again, but the increase has been modest. The birth rate in 2015 averaged just 1.75 children.
1,469.3 billion USDis Russia's GDP according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Russia ranks 12th in the world in terms of GDP, between South Korea (1,529.7 billion USD) and Spain (1,307.2 billion USD) but far behind the US (19,362.1 billion USD). Russia's GDP accounts for nearly 2% of the world's GDP.
+1.8%is the economic growth rate of Russia in 2017 according to the IMF. According to the President of the Central Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina, the growth in 2018 is estimated to reach from 1.5% to 2%.
Russia has been struggling to recover from the recession that erupted in 2014, hit by a double whammy of falling oil prices and Western sanctions. The economic recovery has been shaky, with industrial production slowing sharply in November 2017.
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| Russia's national budget depends heavily on oil and gas revenues. Photo: Finacial Tribune |
-8.4%is Russia's 2017 non-oil budget deficit, according to IMF data. If oil revenues are included, the deficit is 1%. This shows that Russia's national budget is heavily dependent on oil and gas revenues.
10,307 USDis Russia's per capita income in 2016 according to World Bank data. After growing almost steadily for about 10 years, per capita income has been falling since 2013. On this indicator, Russia ranks between 55th and 60th (depending on the calculation method), ahead of Kazakhstan but behind Poland and Hungary.
71.3 years oldis the average life expectancy of Russians in 2015 according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The life expectancy gap between men (65.9 years) and women (76.7 years) is quite large. In comparison, life expectancy in Russia is lower than in most developed countries such as France (82.4 years) or the United States (78.8 years).
Mr Putin's family allowance policy to support second children onwards has not been implemented well in cities and only achieved success in rural areas"
Professor Philippe Pelé-Clamour at the Paris Business School, France
103,438 casesis the number of new HIV infections recorded in 2016 according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, while the number of new infections in 2010 was only 62,581. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is growing at an alarming rate.
19.8 millionpeople is the number of people living below the poverty line in 2016 according to Russian government statistics and was just acknowledged by President Vladimir Putin in his State of the Nation Address on March 1.
Thirteen percent of Russia’s population lives below the minimum income of 9,691 rubles ($196.70), the highest rate in 10 years. In 2014, only 16.1 million people lived below the poverty line before Russia entered a recession.
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| 13% of Russia's population lives below the minimum income. Pictured is a beggar on a Moscow metro. Photo: Kommersant |
Russia enters official elections
Up to now, preparations for the Russian presidential election have been completed and are considered very good, thorough and thoughtful.
With the aim of creating maximum publicity and transparency for the election, the Central Election Commission of Russia (SIK) has applied many measures such as granting permission for 1,455 observers from 86 countries and 14 international organizations to monitor the election, double that of the 2012 presidential election.
The SIK also encouraged various social and political organizations in the country to participate in monitoring the election process. In addition, the observer force also included more than 5,560 journalists representing domestic mass media and 367 foreign journalists.
In particular, Russia spent nearly 3 billion rubles to install ballot scanning systems, automatic vote counting machines, surveillance camera systems and live video transmission equipment at most of the more than 97,000 polling stations across the country.
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| Vladivostok residents vote early on the morning of March 18. Photo: Reuters |
Security work for the election was strengthened with the participation of most functional forces.
Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said it would deploy 115,000 personnel and nearly 19,000 pieces of equipment to ensure security at all election precincts across the country.
In Moscow alone, the capital's authorities have mobilized more than 17,000 civil servants to ensure order on voting day today (March 18). Traffic on voting day in the capital remains normal, but patrols and controls have been tightened.
Early voting in Russia began on February 25 in remote, hard-to-reach areas, on ships that were scheduled to leave on March 18 at sea.
As of March 16, about 153,500 voters had gone to the polls, including more than 30,000 voters in 50 countries around the world.