President Vladimir Putin urged Russian women to bear up to eight children as Russia faces a population crisis, worsened by the ongoing war with Ukraine and rising soldier casualties.
What Happened: In a recent address to the World Russian People’s Council, Putin emphasized that larger families should become the norm in Russia, reviving traditions of the past, Business Insider reported.
“Many of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers, had seven, eight, or even more children,” said Putin.
“Let us preserve and revive these excellent traditions. Large families must become the norm, a way of life for all of Russia’s people. The family is not just the foundation of the state and society, it is a spiritual phenomenon, a source of morality.”
“Preserving and increasing the population of Russia is our goal for the coming decades and even generations ahead. This is the future of the Russian world, the millennium-old, eternal Russia,” he added.
Why It Matters: Decades of declining birth rates in Russia have been exacerbated by the Ukraine invasion and the resulting economic fallout. An estimated 900,000 people have fled the country due to the war, while another 300,000 have been enlisted to fight, aggravating Russia’s workforce crisis.
As per a statistical analysis conducted by Russian media outlets, around 50,000 Russian men have reportedly died in the Ukraine conflict.
Despite Putin’s efforts to enhance Russia’s birthrate through government incentives for families with multiple children, the measures have proven largely ineffective. Russia’s federal statistics service, Rosstat, reported a drop in the Russian population to 146 million as of Jan. 1, lower than in 1999 when Putin first took office.
“Russia lacks workers,” stated Alexei Raksha, a former demographer at Rosstat. “It’s an old problem, but it has gotten worse due to mobilization and mass departures.”
Photo by Frederic Legrand – COMEO on Shutterstock
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This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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