There are now 10 million fewer children in Russia than in 1990

There are currently about 30 million children in Russia, approximately 10 million less than in 1990. It is estimated that there will only be about 25 million by 2010. As a Rosbalt correspondent reports, this was announced yesterday by Valery Yelizarov, director of the centre for demographic problems, at a round-table discussion devoted to birth control. He said that family benefits have only accounted for 0.37% of national GDP in 2003. This is 0.61% lower than in 1996. Ideally, Mr Yelizarov said, family benefits should account for 2.2% of GDP.