Russia is continuing to tumble into the demographic abyss. Between January and August, the natural population loss accelerated by a further 30%, the Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), announced on Thursday.

Over eight months, 994,300 people were born and 1.21 million died. Although mortality fell (by 33,700 people), the birth rate declined more than two and a half times faster (by 83,900 people).

Overall, the number of deaths exceeded the number of births by 20%. In 32 of …

13 members of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, have created an interparty coalition called “Kuban”. The new group will work on the return of Ukrainian ethnic territories and ethnic Ukrainians to the cultural and social field, MP Oleksiy Honcharenko, elected head of the union, wrote on Facebook.

“First and foremost, we will work on Kuban. But other regions that are densely inhabited by Ukrainians will also be under our close attention,” Honcharenko wrote.

The MP also published a copy …

Vietnam is suspending its imports of Russian wheat. Rosselkhoznadzor, Russia’s federal veterinary and phytosanitary supervisory authority, has received a letter from Vietnam containing a request to stop issuing phytosanitary certificates to suppliers of wheat to Vietnam, said department’s spokesperson Yulia Melano as reported by finanz.ru.

Russia is the world’s largest wheat exporter, and Vietnam is a major buyer, although it cut back on its purchases a year ago, when it began to combat wheat …