The State Statistics Committee (Goskomstat) announced on 21 October that in the first eight months of 2004, the population of Russia fell by 504,000 to 143.7 million. The decrease was mainly the result of the difference between the birthrate (1.013 million) and mortality rate (1.533 million). Although the natural loss of population decreased slightly in comparison with the same period last year, Russia continues to lose population at a rate comparable with civilian casualties in the bloodiest months of World War II. If the trend continues, Russia\'s very existence will be put into question in a few decades. Meanwhile, commenting on Goskomstat\'s figures, Health and Social Development Minister Mikhail Zurabov said that Russia\'s current population is already \"insufficient for a country with such territory and long borders.\" Khabarovsk Krai Governor Viktor Ishaev added that the most acute threat of depopulation is in Eastern Siberia and the Far East, where the Russian population doesn\'t exceed 8 million, while 50 times that number of Chinese live on the other side of the Amur River. \"One should understand that nature does not tolerate a vacuum. If one side doesn\'t fill it, the other will.\" (TV-Tsentr)