A quote from Walter Laqueur on The Free West, 20 October 2005

The Kremlin feels in a strong position in view of the great and growing income from the oil and gas they are selling. But oil and gas is not enough to reestablish an empire. They try to do the impossible – to make the new Russia more nationalist and more multi cultural at the same time. But the number of Russians is dwindling, the Russian countryside is becoming empty, thousands of villages are simply disappearing. The demographers predict that the population of Russia at present 142 million will have declined by 2050 to 101 millions, even if the birthrate should recover which is quite doubtful. For comparison. The population of Yemen, not the most populous country in the Middle East, will also be about 100 millions by the middle of the century.