User:RahalMccall69

@@@ President in which he was pretty clearly doing his best to give an aneurysm:

Obama downplayed Moscow鈥檚 role in the world, <a href=http://www.saclouisvuittonhomme.com>Sac Louis Vuitton Speedy Round</a> dismissing President Vladimir Putin as a leader causing short-term trouble for political gain that will hurt Russia in the long term. 
鈥淚 do think it鈥檚 important to keep perspective. Russia doesn鈥檛 make anything,鈥?Obama said in the interview. 
鈥淚mmigrants aren鈥檛 rushing to Moscow in search of opportunity. The life expectancy of the Russian male is around 60 years old. The population is shrinking,鈥?he said.

Obama has managed to compress a pretty startling amount of factual inaccuracy into just 3 short sentences. Let鈥檚 take his claims in order. 1) 鈥淚mmigrants aren鈥檛 rushing to Moscow in search of opportunity鈥?nbsp; One of the first things that anyone notices when they are in Moscow is the enormous number of immigrants from Central Asia. Probably the single most noteworthy and inescapable feature of modern Russian life is the prevalence of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people who have already rushed to Moscow 鈥渋n search of opportunity.鈥?It鈥檚 impossible to miss them. If for some reason you distrust that demonstrate the huge numbers of immigrants moving to Russia, maybe you鈥檇 be willing to listen to liberal darling Alexey Navalny. Navalny, you see, is actively agitating on behalf of aggressive anti-immigration policies, recently w of Muslim 鈥済uest workers.鈥? Navalny鈥檚 (popular) campaign only makes sense if there are large numbers of immigrants. Indeed a by Barack Obama鈥檚 very own government recently produced an interesting video showing how Eid Al-Fitr was celebrated in Moscow by the throngs of immigrants that are (you guessed it) there 鈥渋n search of opportunity.鈥? Russia is widely acknowledged to be the most popular destination for immigrants after the United States, and several of the most consequential political disagreements in Russian society revolve around the question of how to deal with immigration. Anyone who thinks that Russia isn鈥檛 dealing with a significant debate over immigration simply doesn鈥檛 know anything about the country. 2) 鈥淭he life expectancy of the Russian male is around 60 years old鈥? The life expectancy of the Russian male isn鈥檛 a subject of conjuncture or obscure philosophical inquiry, it is a number that is very easily found on the public-facing . In 2013, the average male life expectancy in Russia was a little bit above 65 (technically it was 65.14). When Obama says that life expectancy is 鈥渁round 60鈥?he鈥檚 off by about 8%. With a similar margin of error we could say that Barack Obama is the 41st president of the United States, that he won 47% of the vote in the 2012 presidential election, and that he was born in 1957. 8% is a margin of error that people rarely feel confident using, because it very quickly makes you sound rather ill-informed and ignorant. It is still possible, of course, to argue that Russian male life expectancy is low. In comparison to other countries in the region it is rather low. But there鈥檚 a difference between 65 and 60. One is factually accurate and one isn鈥檛. For some reason Obama chose to go with the inaccurate one, and it鈥檚 worth pointing out as much. 3) 鈥淭he population is shrinking鈥? Obama鈥檚 statement is a perfect example of why I so frequently write about a topic as seemingly obscure and boring as Russian demography: people from the US political elite almost always make huge mistakes when talking about it.. The Russian population isn鈥檛 just growing in 2014, it also grew in 2013. And 2012. And 2011. And 2010. And 2009. Unless you get into a -like debate over the meaning of the word 鈥渋s,鈥?it鈥檚 impossible to argue that Russia鈥檚 population is shrinking. It was shrinking in the past and it is likely to shrink in the future, but it is not shrinking at the present moment. Not a very complicated concept. I鈥檓 fully aware, of course, that Russian demography is not the most important issue in the world. Countries will not rise and fall because Barack Obama used out of date information on Russian life expectancy. But it really does not say anything good about Obama鈥檚 team that they allowed not one, not two, but three blatant factual inaccuracies to sneak into a sit-down interview with the press. Before doing an interview like this, someone as powerful as Obama will have a small army of researchers and assistants running around to help him prepare. Apparently none of them could be bothered to do a few basic searches. In today鈥檚 world, it is not that difficult to get accurate demographic information, and it鈥檚 a little bit disconcerting that no one on Obama鈥檚 team was able to do so. Follow me on @or on