RUSSIAN DEMOGRAPHIC SITUATION SEEN AS CATASTROPHIC.

Overthe last five years, mortality rates in Russia have risen by 50percent, an unprecedented increase in any country during peacetime,Yuzhniy Ural reported June 2. The increase reflects thesocial dislocations brought about by the collapse of the SovietUnion and the social strains of the shift to a market economy.In a micro-census conducted in Vladimir oblast in 1994, Russiantelevision reported July 11, demographers reported an even moredevastating picture. Mortality rates had increased by half overthe last six years, all increases in the number of Russians werethe result of the influx of Russian migrants from former Sovietrepublics, and the number of young people aged 15-19 studyingin school had dropped dramatically.

Crime Rises in Moscow.