The Potential for Reducing Mortality in Russia

Abstract

This article attempts to assess current national and regional reserves for reducing the mortality rate in Russia. It explores the potential to reduce the mortality rate in comparison to comparable international benchmarks in rates of growth and gains in life expectancy at birth, identifies a range of circumstances that have an adverse impact on the population’s health in post-Soviet Russia, and shows that the main reserve for reducing mortality remains the “lost health capital” that preceded the collapse of the Soviet Union and continued in the 1990s. Finally, it assesses the current regional potential for lowering the mortality rate, which is “hidden” in differences between regions leading in life expectancy (with the exception of extremes) and the country’s remaining territories. The conclusion presents data revealing the life expectancy of men and women.