Russian Popn. Decreased by More Than 1Mln People due to Covid-19

Russian statistics revealed a historic decline in the country's population in 2021, at a rate of more than one million people, according to urgent news broadcast by Al-Arabiya TV a short time ago.

Russian statistics added: The country's population declined by more than one million people in 2021, most of them due to Corona.

Russia's population declined by more than one million people in 2021, the statistics agency Rosstat reported Friday, a historic drop not seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to France 24.

Ongoing demographic woes have been exacerbated by the pandemic with Rosstat figures showing more than 660,000 had died with coronavirus since health officials recorded the first case in the country.

The new figures continue a downward trend from the previous year when Russia's population fell by more than half a million.

The Covid-related fatalities figures published monthly by Rosstat are far higher than death figures released by a separate government website, which is dedicated to tracking the pandemic in the country.

The government website figures only take into account fatalities where the virus was established as the primary cause of death after an autopsy and show just 329,443 total fatalities.

The discrepancy has fed into criticism that the Russian government has been downplaying the severity of the pandemic in one of the worst-hit countries by cases in the world.

Russia has struggled to curb the pandemic due to a slow vaccination drive coupled with limited restrictive measures and rampant non-compliance with mask-wearing in public places.