ITAR-TASS reports that the number of Russian students studying in primary and secondary institutions has fallen from 18.2 million in 2002 to 15.1 million in 2006 -- a drop of 17% in just four years. More than 100,000 fewer children graduated from secondary school this year compared to last year.

At this rate, losing about 750,000 students per year (a rate similar to the decline of the general population), the current crop of students in school will dwindle to zero in just over 20 years, so that by 2027 Russians schools will be ghost towns (and, by that time, 10% of the population will be infected with AIDS).

But what can be expected in a country where a crazed dictatorship devotes one-fifth of the national economy to military spending, murders more citizens than all foreign enemies combined, attempts to wipe out the national religious culture, intentionally destroys its intellectuals, bankrupts the country and literally causes it to cease to exist, only to be freely returned to power by the population in a democratic election? What can one expect when that dictatorship hurtles right back down the same failed path, all the while blaming "capitalism" and "democracy" for the nation's ills?

One can only expect doom.