The impending threat of famine also creates the conditions for masses of refugees. This year's harvests are predicted to be poor. Russian potato crops have been damaged by heavy rains and that country's grain harvest is predicted to be down 25 percent from last year. Seventy-three million people in these countries are living below the poverty line, according to agency estimates. Many of these people have not been paid in months as a result of the countries' economic crises.
Children face the greatest dangers of poverty and famine.
Many cannot attend school for lack of proper clothing, and most schools can no longer provide free lunches. Relief agencies estimate that 50 percent of children are physically underdeveloped. Unofficial estimates indicate that there are at least 1 million street children roving across the Russian Federation, with proportionally similar figures in Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. Nearly 80 percent of the population of Moldova live below the poverty line. In Russia , despite the appearance of well-stocked store shelves, the majority of people cannot afford to buy food, as the barter system has virtually eliminated the use of money throughout the country's provinces.