The Russian Demographic Pyramid and the Post-Soviet Collapse

Putin is a former KGB agent, so he was part of that click, just at a much lower level. The biggest one of all by far is the post-Soviet collapse in the 1990s when the death rate doubled and the birth rate half. Russian statistics indicate that 1.3 million Russians under age 35 have fled the country since the war began. If this war was ever going to happen, it always had to happen about right now.