Exposing Vladimir Putin's Potemkin Nation
Filed under: Russia
On March 18th the Refugee Agency of United Nations' High Commissioner on Refugees issued a report entitled "Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries."
According to this report (see page 7), the United States leads the world in receiving refugees from other countries -- and Russia is #2 in the world in generating them (see page 10). Russia generated nearly 20% more refugees in 2007 than it had in 2006, and moved up from #4 in the world in the prior year as the result. Russia generates more refugees than China, which reduced its refugee count in 2007 compared to 2006, and is exceeded only by war-torn Iraq in causing people to flee for their lives.
So much for the idea that things are going wonderfully well in Vladimir Putin's Russia! Combine this with the net loss of hundreds of thousands from the population every year due to ill-health and short lifespans and, if things were going any better, the whole country would be completely deserted!
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