Why is homicide rate so high in Russia?

A Russian police officer unloads guns seized from the public that are to be melted down in the Rostov-On-Don region on May 28. Russia has strict gun laws and far fewer guns in circulation than the U.S., but Russia has a much higher murder rate. Matytsin Valery/ITAR-TASS /Landov hide caption. read more

Out of curiosity I went to check numbers and found that Russia’s Rate is circa 12, US-6, Central America countries like Venezuela-50 according to UN. Indeed Rate is high comparing to US or EU countries. There might be lot of reasons behind in my opinion but majors are poor medical care, low income, bad social habits like liquor abuse and drugs. read more

In Russia the homicide rate is 9.2 and while there are no good sources on the firearm related rate, neighboring Belarus and Ukraine have similar to Russian firearm possession laws and both have the firearm-related death rate less than 0.1. So basically guns doesn't contribute that much to the homicide rate in Russia. read more

The increase in homicide rate in Russia began slightly earlier than 1990, and rose throughout the 1990s. Homicides were more common in Russia than in the Baltic states in 1991 and nearly doubled in frequency by 1994–1995. In 2003, the homicide rate in Russia was among the highest in the world. read more