At the point in which the number of births constitutes replacement. We're not talking 5 babies born annually in the Rodina, we're talking a small number of bab

At the point in which the number of births constitutes replacement. We're not talking 5 babies born annually in the Rodina, we're talking a small number of babies born compared to Russia's population. Births aren't evenly-distributed. The population segments that are having more births now are the segments likely to have more births down the road. Death, on the other hand, is much more evenly distributed, and the number of deaths per year is directly related to population. As the population shrinks, you have a smaller number of deaths, but births don't decrease as quickly. Eventually, you hit a new equilibrium.