Russia's population will plummet by 30 per cent in the next four decades due to a falling birth rate, Vladimir Putin warned today.
The Russian Prime Minister issued the warning as he announced plans to invest $53billion (£46.9billion) to help raise reproduction rates in the country by 2015.
Despite being the worlds largest country at over 6.5million square miles, high rates of smoking, alcoholism, pollution and poverty, together with falling rates, mean Russia's population will shrink to 116 million by 2050 from 143million last year.