Circulatory diseases, exacerbated by stress, are a major killer. Life expectancy for a man has sunk to 58 years (72 for women), the lowest bar two of the 52 countries in the WHO European region. Russia's population has plummeted by almost 7% to 143 million in the last 15 years, and is predicted to drop by another 20 million by 2025. And as Moscow gears up to take over the presidency of the G8 on January 1, the Kremlin is being urged to meet the crisis head on.

In a report published last week, Delovaya Rossiya, a business lobby group, predicted that the country would lose an astonishing $400bn (£232bn) in the next two decades if it failed to tackle the population dive. Inadequate government efforts to encourage immigration, support young families and promote healthy eating are having a disastrous effect on President Vladimir Putin's oft-repeated desire to double GDP, it said. In another study published earlier this month, the World Bank concluded that Russia would never compete with the other G8 countries if it did not address its health deficit and demographic decline.

The study, titled Dying Too Young, warned that Russia's demographic "devastation" was unprecedented among industrialised nations and threatened to shave billions off its GDP. The World Bank put much of the blame on high rates of heart disease and other non-communicable diseases that could be mitigated by improved healthcare.

Economic reforms seem essential too. Russians are flocking to the big cities, but as noted by a top presidential advisor who just resigned, state control of the economy has become a real obstacle to economic growth. Russian president Vladimir Putin is looking more and more like real hoser, daily.

TECHNORATI TAGS: RUSSIA, POPULATION, DISEASE, LIFESPANS, ECONOMY