An Ailing Russia Lives a Tough Life That's Getting Shorter In a country whose most overworked word is "krizis" — crisis — here is a genuine one: Russian life
expectancy has fallen in 6 of the last 10 years.

It fell every month last year alone, to an average of 65.9 years for both men and women — about 10 years
less than in the United States, and on a par with levels in Guatemala. Moreover, government statistics
through last August point to a further drop in 2000.

It is a sore-thumb symptom of a precipitous decline in Russia's public health, a spiral not seen in a
developed nation since the Great Depression, if then. Life expectancy is not just a medical issue but a
barometer of a society's health. In a sense it is a lagging indicator of poverty, of stress, of cohesion and
stability — and of a government's ability or willingness to take care of its own.

Since 1990, according to the most recent figures, the death rate has risen almost one-third, to the highest of
any major nation, and the birth rate has dropped almost 40 percent, making it among the very lowest.
Mortality from circulatory diseases has jumped by a fifth; from suicides, a third; from alcohol-related causes,
almost 60 percent; from infectious and parasitic diseases, nearly 100 percent.

Not all the toll was registered in deaths. The rate of newly disabled people rose by half.