It seems like only yesterday that Russia was a strong, proud nation. It was also revered as one of the only two world superpowers, with the United States being the other. However, in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, marking the failure of Communism. Today, Russia is on the brink of becoming a third-world nation. Russia's population is collapsing, environmental problems are widespread, diseases, both communicable and non-communicable, are spreading like wildfire, crime is rampant, people are turning to drugs in an effort to ease their pains, and the economy has been plummeting since the conversion from Communism to capitalism from over a decade ago.
             While Russia was still known as the Soviet Union, its population reached approximately 287 million, 40 million more than the United States at this time (Dillin 4). Since this time, its population has dwindled down to almost half of this (146 million). This can be attributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, which saw Russia lose about one-third of its population, and one-fourth of its territory. Some experts estimate that Russia is losing nearly 400 thousand people a year, which may lead to its population sinking to around 125 million by the year 2015 (Dillin 5). Officially, Russia's population is declining by one thousand every day.
             A major contributing factor to the major loss of population may be the lack of childbirth. Sexually transmitted diseases have left millions of women infertile and, with abortion legal, abortions outnumber live births by an astonishing 2-to-1 average (Dillin 2). It is estimated that the birth rate in Russia has fallen to 9.1 births per one thousand people, compared to 15.7 in the United State (Powell 1). This means that one in four married couples is childless (Powell 2). If these trends do not end soon, Russia's population could fall below that of countries such as Mexico, Vietnam, and Iran by the year 2025 (Dillin 6). In conclusion, a...