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Current topic: A sustainable development rating of Russian cities

• Cities and sustainable development

• Why we need a rating of sustainable urban development

• Components and metrics of the rating

• The rating’s leaders and outsiders

• Different facets of comparison

• Evenly and unevenly developed cities

• How to perfect and use city ratings

• Links to current topic

• Topics of previous issues

Russian demographic barometer

Russia: preliminary demographic results of 2014 (Part I)

• Russia's population is increasing for the sixth consecutive year - for 2014 it grew by 0.2%, for a total of 146.3 million people on 1 January 2015

• In 2014 natural growth increased, but population growth is provided mainly by migration

• In 2014 the increase in the number of births resumed

• In 2014 the number of registered marriages decreased, while the number of divorces increased

Through the eyes of the analysts

• Development of Russia’s urban system: trends and factors

• The stratification of space

• Cities of Russia’s East under the pressure of demographic contraction and western drift

• Institutional factors of the development of failed nuclear cities

• The development of social capital of Russia’s largest cities

• Development and inequality: a spatial perspective

Polling

• Do you need Demoscope?

Take care of women!

• How should the state combat abortion?

In the vastness of Russia

• Government’s social block is not considering raising the retirement age

• The fate of the funded part of the pension will be determined in 2015

• Increasing the required length of service for fixing pensions of teachers and doctors will be discussed publicly

• Government not considering proposal to deduct 1% of salary for Pension Fund

• Real disposable income in January fell by 0.8%

• Around 70% of Russians are dissatisfied with their salary

• The slowdown in the economy is affecting the health and reproductive behavior of Russians

• The number of returned foster children has gone down 1.5 times

• The number of orphans in Moscow has decreased by 20%

• More than a third of Russians fear massive layoffs and wage cuts

• Ministry of Labor records a 2.2% increase in unemployment for the week

• FMS retains preferential system of extending temporary stay of Ukrainians in Russia

• Job placement may be simplified for citizens of Serbia in Russia

• The number of foreigners coming to Russia to work has not decreased

• Moscow City Duma discusses requiring labor migrants to show a certain sum of money at the border

• There should be around 20 migration centers in Russia’s large cities

• The success of the work license system for migrants is indubitable

• The monopoly of five universities administering exam for migrants will wreck the issuing of work licenses

• Has the number of illegal migrants been halved in the past 6 months?

• There will be no broad amnesty for migrants in the near future

• The incidence of alcoholism in Russia has fallen by a quarter in last 25 years

• In Russia, mortality among drug addicts is decreasing

• The number of smokers in Russia has decreased by 17% in past two years

• In Russia, children with cancer recovering more often

• In Moscow, every case of suicide of cancer patients will be checked

• Will free medical care in Russia not be cut by 2030?

• The volume of paid medical services in Russia increased by 20% in 2014

• In 2014, over 1 billion rubles from Russian budget was spent on medical aid to citizens of Ukraine

• Ministry of Health has promised to increase the volume of high-tech medical care

• Neonatal screening will reduce the cost of treatment

• Could 50% of expensive drugs be replaced by cheaper ones?

• Over 60% of Russians don’t approve of marital infidelity, 24% consider it the norm

Eurasian panorama

• No fewer than 5,665 people have been killed since mid-April in the east of Ukraine

• Azerbaijan’s population is almost 9.6 million people

• Birth rate in Azerbaijan is 18.1 per thousand

• Until June marriages in Azerbaijan can be concluded without mandatory medical examination

• Half of all girls in Kirgizia are married by force

• Per capita cash income in Azerbaijan rose in  January

• Minimum wage in Ukraine in dollar terms has set a record low

• Real wages in Belarus decreased by 13.6%

• Growth of real wages in Azerbaijan came to 3.1%

• With the increased cost of services the number of people needing subsidies in Ukraine will increase to 5 million

• 5 million citizens of Ukraine are in need of humanitarian aid

• Around 550 thousand people in the East of Ukraine have no access to drinking water

• Unemployment benefits in Azerbaijan fell by 7.9%

• Citizens of Abkhazia will get new passports before yearend

• As of March 1, new rules for citizens of Russia entering Ukraine

• Citizens of Armenia and Russia will be able to stay without registration on each other’s territory for 30 days

• Departures to Ukraine from the Rostov region exceeded arrivals

• There will be no exodus of Kirgiz migrants from Russia

• Kirgiz authorities are asking Russia for preferential treatment of its migrant workers

• In 2014, labor migrants in Russia sent more than $2.2 billion to Kirgizia

• In Belarus, 1% of university students are taught in Belarusian

• 48% of the population of Kirgizia speak fluent Russian

• In Uzbekistan, major ethnic conflicts are practically impossible

• Is the growth in crime in Tashkent due to the return of migrant workers?

World news

• Europe is home to 70 thousand Estonians

• 10% of the population has fled from Kosovo

• Government of Iran to support fertility

• Myanmar starting to limit births

• BRICS demography seminar will take place in Russia at the end of the year

• In January U.S. experienced annual deflation for the first time since 2009

• Greece promises not to cancel current privatization deals

• Spaniards will be able to adopt Russian children

• Turkey and the European Commission have signed agreement on employment program

• Unemployment in Estonia in 2014 was 7.4%

• Children of Guatemala are forced to work like adults

• Israel is ready to accept Jewish immigrants from Europe

• Turkey has expelled 1.4 thousand people suspected of having ties to ISIS

• Since the beginning of the crisis in Syria more than 10 million people have fled their homes

• The number of people infected with the Ebola virus in West Africa has surpassed 23,000

• Liberian authorities have decided to cancel curfew imposed due to Ebola virus

• WHO warns of threat of cholera epidemic in Syria

• US scientists are testing a vaccine against HIV

• Disabled children in Estonia do not have enough means of rehabilitation

• The number of measles cases in the U.S. has exceeded 150 people

• UK Parliament legalizes birth of children from three parents

• Water shortage threatens fourteen major cities

• Pakistan will soon face water shortage

The newspapers write about…

• “Vedomosti” on the Chinese Megacity

• “Chatham House” on the development of cities

• “Poisk” on the demographic situation and its consequences

• “Nezavisimaya gazeta” on population policy

• “Nezavisimaya gazeta” on cashing part of the capital maternity

• “Kommersant-Dengi” on family values in time of crisis

• “Ogonyok” on nuptiality

• “Kommersant” on fictive marriages

• “Belorusskie novosti” on life expectancy in Belarus

• “Belorusskie novosti” on mortality from stroke

• “Nezavisimaya gazeta” on internal and international migration in crisis

• “Expert Online” on migration in Moscow

• “Rossiyskaya gazeta” and “Kommersant” on how migrants are taking exams

• “Vecherniy Bishkek” on a multifunctional center of labor migration

• “Azatlyk Radiosy” on labor migration to Russia and Kazakhstan

• “Novye izvestiya” on the emigration moods of Russians

• “Kommersant” on Obama’s stalled immigration reform

• “Izvestiya” on a decrease in emigration from Russia to the U.S.

• “Camonitor.com” on Uzbeks in Kazakhstan

• “Rossiyskaya gazeta” on the migration threat of ISIS

• “Polit.ru” on employment and unemployment in crisis

• “Nezavisimaya gazeta” on the unemployment forecast

• “Rossiyskaya gazeta” on unemployment and suicide

• “Rossiyskaya gazeta” on Moscow’s labor market

• “RBC.ru” on the growth of shadow employment in Russia

• “Rossiyskaya gazeta” on the rights of part-timers

• “Nezavisimaya gazeta” on paying for free medical care

• “Kommersant” on the lack of medicines for recipients of benefits

• “Novye izvestiya” and “Kommersant” on the retirement age

• “Rossiyskaya gazeta” on limiting pensions for working pensioners

• “Kommersant” on inequality in Russia

• “Kommersant-Vlast” on the rising cost of food

• “Nezavisimaya gazeta” on social support

• “Novye izvestiya” on registration and employment in Israel

• “Vecherniy Bishek” on undercounting the population of Kirgizia

• “Nezavisimaya gazeta” on parents’ age and children’s health

• “Rossiyskaya gazeta” on mitochondrial replacement

• “Polit.ru” on Twitter and atherosclerosis of the heart

Read books and magazines

• Sociology. Natural Science. Society

• Health of the Russian population: the influence of the environment in a changing climate

• International legal mechanisms to regulate migration: doctrinal approaches and the experience of the Russian Federation

• The regions of Russia. Socio-economic indicators.  2014

• Uzbekistan. Health Systems in Transition

• Through the pages of the journals “Demograficheskoye obozreniye” (“Demographic Review”) and “Terapevticheskiy arkhiv” (“Therapeutic Archives”)

• Contents of the “Journal of Marriage and Family”

Profession: researcher

• Demoscope Weekly editor-in-chief awarded honorary title of “Distinguished economist of the Russian Federation”

• 90 years since the birth of Viktor Petrovich Danilov