Sanktioner mot Ryssland.

Ryssar dör istället mycket oftare än svenskar i hjärtsjukdomar. Men det beror ju på att de äter för mycket, inte för lite.

In general, children in Russia are not well. By definitions used by the Health Ministry, only 14 percent can be said to be in good health. Between 15 and 20 percent of preschool children suffer from chronic diseases; up to 60 percent have rickets, are underweight or have allergies. More than 10 percent are anemic. And in areas where pollution has done its worst damage, the situation is even more troubling. In some oil- and chemical-producing regions, children are 10 times more likely to get pneumonia and 5 times more likely to have bronchial ailments than in relatively clean areas.

The poisoning of the environment is one of the Communist system's most terrible legacies. "It is the water, it is the food, it is the air," said Murray Feshbach, a professor of demography at Georgetown University and an expert on Soviet health statistics. "As one minister once said, 'To live longer, we should breathe less.' " Mothers at Risk

"What worries me most is the health of pregnant women, " said Dina I. Zelinskaya, head of the Mother and Child department at the Health Ministry. She noted that in 1988, the number of mothers who died during pregnancy and childbirth -- 52 per 100,000 births -- was 10 times higher in Russia than in developed countries.