Interesting Russian Demographics

I had to look up some numbers for a short presentation that gave recently. They were actually a bit shocking. Russia is still a big country in terms of square mileage (6.5 million sq. mi. according to state.gov, but the population is now only about 142 million (same source). Then I checked the CIA factbook:
Population growth rate: -0.465%, which was 222/233 in the world
Very surprising numbers.

С Рождеством и Новым Годом

Russian Christmas (old style) will be celebrated this first week of January. Tradition has it that it usually snows on, or around, Russian Christmas.