A combination of high mortality and low birth rates. Male life expectancy in Russia has dropped 10 years since 1991, to 58, mainly due to huge increases in alcoholism, smoking, suicide and murder. Female life expectancy has dipped slightly, to aroung 77. The typical family in Russia has about 1.4 children, mainly because it's too expensive to raise more.
Russia, until recently, had net immigration, mostly from other CIS countries, but also from China and elsewhere in Asia. Living standards in Russia are 5-6 times as high as elsewhere in the CIS. Armenia and Georgia have had population declines as high as 40% due to emigration, primarily to Russia.
Chris Doss
The Russia Journal
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> Over the first two months of 2002, Russia's population
>decreased by 160,200 people, or by 0.1 percent, to amount to
What is driving those trends: emigration, high mortality, low birth rates?
Wojtek