News

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

  MOSCOW, October 31, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On November 4th, A coalition of nationalist organizations will march through the streets of Moscow to protest abortion and homosexuality in Russia, according to the Russian news organization Pravda and organizer websites.

  The march comes in response to a plummeting Russian population, which is being replaced by foreigners, especially in larger cities such as Moscow.

“Since 1990, the share of the Russian population of Moscow has fallen,” notes the Russia March’s Organizing Committee. “At the same time, the number of Koreans has sharply increased – 2.3 times, Armenians and Gorgians, 2.8 times, Arabs, 2.9 times, Azerbaijanis, 4.6 times, Moldovians, 5.2 times, Ingush, 5.9 times, Chechens, 6.9 times, Tajiks, 12.2 times, Vietnamese, 14.1 times, and the Chinese, 35 times.”

“This is 2003 data,” the site adds.  “For five years, the situation has worsened.”

  Due to a sky-high abortion rate, which in recent years has stood at around 13 abortions for every 10 live births, the Russian population is plummeting.  It has fallen from 149 million in 1992 to 142 million in 2007, and commonly cited estimates indicate that if trends continue the population will fall to 100 million by 2050.

  Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has called the collapse of Russia’s population “”the most acute problem facing our country today,” and says that the population has been falling by 700,000 people annually for several years.

  Russians are beginning to notice the consequences.  Like other low-birthrate countries, such as Canada, Russia’s urban areas are being inundated with foreigners, who often bring with them higher crime rates, according to March organizers.

“The number of crimes has doubled,” they write. “More than half the crimes are serious…entire areas of urban economies have been taken over by ethno-crime communities, working in conjunction with corrupt officials.”

  Particularly symbolic of the cultural decline of the city are “plans to erect a giant Islamic Center in Moscow with minarets above the height of Christ the Savior Cathedral, a provocation and affront to all Muscovites,” writes the Organizing Committee.

  In addition to abortion and illegal immigration, the groups also intend to protest homosexuality and to advocate the rights of gun ownership, according to Pravda.

  March organizers predict that 5,000 people will attend this year’s rally, whose organizers had to fight for approval from Russian authorities.