MOSCOW, March 7 (RIA Novosti) - The high death rates are a social problem, Russia's President said Wednesday.
Vladimir Putin told a meeting of the council on the implementation of priority national projects and demographic policy: "This country loses over 700,000 people annually. Losing people of a working age - men account for 80% of these - remains a tough problem," he said.
Although cardiovascular diseases and such "unnatural factors" like nicotine and alcohol abuse are major causes, safety problems also persist, the Russian leader said.
In his annual address to the nation in May, President Vladimir Putin pledged financial incentives to women with larger families. As a result, Russia's parliament passed a maternity incentive bill to give payouts to women who give birth to more than one child late in 2006.
