MOSCOW: Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Wednesday said that the country's life expectancy in 2023 exceeded pre-pandemic levels, reaching a historic high.

"At the end of last year, life expectancy in Russia reached almost 73.5 years," Mishustin said.

Such indicators have never been recorded in the history of the former Soviet Union and modern Russia, he said, Xinhua news agency

According to Russia's Federal State Statistics Service, life expectancy in Russia was 73.3 years in 2019, declined during the COVID-19 pandemic and was 71.5 in 2020.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in February that the country plans to increase life expectancy to at least 78 years by 2030.