In America Alone, I devote quite a bit of space to the demographic death spiral of Russia. Now, in a staggering blow to my credibility, the CIA has decided to agree with me:
Russia’s declining population will require Moscow to import foreign workers in the future, increasing racial and religious tensions in the former superpower, according to Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the CIA director… Gen. Hayden warned that Russia is facing “demographic stress” with a population that will decline by 32 million in the next 40 years, almost one-fourth its current population of 141 million.
“To sustain its economy, Russia increasingly will have to look elsewhere for workers,” he said. “Some immigrants will be Russians from the former Soviet states. But others will be Chinese and non-Russians from the Caucasus, Central Asia and elsewhere, potentially aggravating Russia’s already uneasy racial and religious tensions,” the general said.
Golly. On past CIA form, this would mean Moscow is poised to bestride the world like a colossus. But perhaps even a stopped intelligence service is right twice a century…