MOSCOW, July 5: Like Boris Yeltsin, the Russians are in a bad shape. Between 1989 and 1994, the life expectancy of Russian men dropped from 64.2 to 58, which is lower than the Indian average, and experts attribute it to heightened stress resulting from the wave of liberalisation unleashed by Yeltsin. In other words, all the health gains made in 72 years of Soviet rule were undone in just five years.

Disclosing this to the just-concluded Fourth International Conference of Preventive Cardiology (IPC), which drew over 2,800 top cardiologists from 85 countries to this French-speaking Canadian city, Michael Marmot of the University College, London, said the difference in the Russian and the West and North European life expectancy averages is 6.1 years, with heart diseases caused by the ``stress of everyday life'' accounting for 3.3 years of this gap.

Interestingly, another factor cited by Marmot as being responsible for this decline is the reversal of President Mikhail Gorbachev's alcohol control policy by his vodka-loving successor.

The IPC, incidentally, is the world's most influential assembly of heart specialists. Its recent meeting was co-sponsored by the World Health Organisation, Health Canada (which is the Chairman equivalent of the Health Ministry) and the American Heart Association.

The implications of Marmot's findings are obvious, which is that the sudden shift to the free market has not only pushed Russia deeper into debt, but also made life more difficult for its people.

``There's a clear link between the decline in life expectancy and the stress caused by the unexpected economic situation,'' Marmot said, adding significantly that ``societies with a more equal distribution of income enjoy a higher life expectancy''.

His colleague, Paul McKeigue, was equally forthright. ``The collapse of life expectancy coincided with economic liberalisation in Russia,'' he said.