The population of Russia is shrinking by more than 750000 a year?

Answer 1

Ever since 2009, Russia has been gaining population. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Russia had a peak population of 148,689,000, but its population growth rate would decrease to -0.5% (losing about 745,000 annually). However, in 2009 Russia saw a small gain of about 23,000. As of 2012, the population growth rate is 0.15% (which would call for an annual gain of about 215,000) and the population stands at about 143,200,000.