10 million Russians may better their condition in 2 years

By 2005, the material conditions of 10 million Russians (some 22 percent of the country's population) may improve, taking them to the right side of the poverty line, claims a World Bank expert report posted on the official site of the bank's Moscow office.

If so, the numbers of impoverished people countrywide would drop by a quarter.

World Bank estimates the numbers of people living below the poverty line now at 29 percent of the population, or more than 42 million. The most recent 2002 census put Russia's population at 145.1 million.