well, the absolute grimmest, darkest and shittiest time, demography-wise or any other aspect really, was 1999 with fertility rate of 1.16, which somehow coincid

well, the absolute grimmest, darkest and shittiest time, demography-wise or any other aspect really, was 1999 with fertility rate of 1.16, which somehow coincided with the peak of the official mad euphoria for the West and Yeltsin's drunken man-crush on his "friend Bill". Currently, the fertility rate is on par with the US and most of the other urbanized world, life expectancy is up by whopping 8 years since then (not counting the Covid). That one million of lives lost is due to Covid and it seems like the country is pretty much in the same boat as everyone else now, slowly withering away.