The Russian
government on Thursday approved a new program to fight
diseases that contribute to the country's plunging
population, which President Vladimir Putin has singled
out as a serious hindrance to its prosperity, news
reports said.
Approval of a
five-year financing plan aiming to decrease mortality from
diseases including diabetes, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and
cancer came as the state statistics agency said
Russia's population dropped by more than 560,000 last
year to 142.2 million, a new post-Soviet low.
Putin has
lamented a persistent population decline that has served as
a stark backdrop for the largely oil-fueled economic
growth that has rejuvenated Russia during his
presidency. He has focused largely on increasing the
birthrate--encouraging childbirth by establishing
subsidies for parents starting with their second
child--but deaths continue to outnumber births,
and life expectancy remains short, particularly for
men.
A Health and
Social Development Ministry official said male life
expectancy in 2005 was 58.9 years, which it said was
15-20 years shorter than in the United States,
France, and Japan, while female life expectancy of
72.3 years was four to seven years shorter than in
those countries, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
The official said
the suicide rate was rising, with nearly 40,000 each
year, and deaths outpace births by at least 50% in most
parts of Russia, ITAR-Tass reported.
Low living
standards and financial worries aggravate stress and lead to
unhealthy behavior, domestic violence, and psychological
problems, the agency quoted the unidentified official
as saying.
The anti-disease
program for 2007-2011 is to be financed with $2.9
billion, more than half of it from regional budgets,
ITAR-Tass and RIA-Novosti quoted Health and Social
Development minister Mikhail Zurabov as saying. He
said Russia's provinces had fallen far short of financing
targets for the program that expired last year and urged
them to do better.
According to
ITAR-Tass, allocations for the 2002-2006 previous
program totaled only $750 million. (AP)