The Russian Federation is likely to break apart into as many as 30 pieces by the middle of this century as that country's accelerating demographic decline leads some of its smaller nationalities to take steps to try to ensure their own survival, according to a leading Moscow scholar.

In an interview posted online, Anatoly Antonov, a professor of sociology, the family and demography at Moscow State University, says that widely believed assertions by government officials that Russia has been able to increase the birthrate "do not correspond to reality".

The current global economic crisis brings the greatest threat for the authoritarian regimes of Russia and China, convinced the British newspaper "The Guardian".

According to columnist Robert Skidelsky, the stability of political systems in Western democracies is provided due to the fact that in case of apparent failures of the ruling party and the emergence of social unrest, the system offers the switch of power to the opposition, without dismantling of the basic principles which hold together the system itself. However in the countries where the regime is authoritarian in nature (and author included Russia and China into the list of such countries) such possibilities are basically not available.

In a rare public display of disaffection, thousands of Russians took to the streets in Moscow, Vladivostok and other major cities on January 31.

Some Communist Party members carried red Soviet era flags and called for the end of capitalism. Putin's United Russia Party simultaneously counter-rallied in support of the Kremlin's efforts to stave off economic collapse.

The number of unemployed Russians rose to 6 million in December compared to 5 million in November as an economic downturn hit home.

The number of unemployed Russians rose to 6 million in December compared to 5 million in November as an economic downturn hit home, the head of the federal employment service Yuri Gertsiy said on Saturday.