Fri Sep 20 08:00:00 UTC 2024: ## Putin Pushes for Baby Boom as Russia’s Birth Rate Plummets
**St. Petersburg, Russia** – In a bid to reverse Russia’s plummeting birth rate, President Vladimir Putin has launched a campaign encouraging women to embrace motherhood, emphasizing a “balance” between professional success and large families. Speaking at the Eurasian Women’s Forum, Putin joked that Russian women can effortlessly manage both while remaining “beautiful, gentle and charming.”
The campaign is part of a broader push toward conservative values and comes as Russia faces a demographic crisis. The country’s fertility rate stands at 1.4, well below the 2.1 needed for population replacement. The Kremlin has labeled the situation “catastrophic,” particularly amidst higher mortality rates among young men due to the war in Ukraine.
To incentivize procreation, the government has announced a range of measures, including financial incentives, expanded access to fertility services, and a new school curriculum promoting the virtues of large families.
“The government is trying to return Russia to the 19th century,” said Alexey Raksha, an independent demographer. “The main message is that women should start bearing children earlier.”
These efforts have been met with mixed reactions. While some women view the government’s assistance as positive, others criticize the campaign as intrusive and coercive.
“The topic of family planning is already delicate,” said Lada Shamardina, a Russian journalist. “The media periodically calls for Russian women to give up their careers and have children, and openly condemns those who do not put family first.”
The government’s push for a baby boom is part of a broader strategy to build a society based on traditional, conservative values. Putin, who has fathered two children and is rumored to have more, frequently frames Russian values as superior to Western ones, accusing the West of rejecting moral norms and being “satanic.”
However, experts like Raksha believe that the campaign will ultimately be ineffective, pointing to the demographic trends dating back to the 1990s that have led to the current low birth rate.
“The main driver of the low birth rate dates back to the 1990s, when there was a substantial drop in annual births in the years following the breakup of the Soviet Union,” said Raksha. “Fewer babies then means there are fewer women of childbearing age now.”
The government’s quest to increase Russia’s population remains a complex issue, intertwined with broader political and social currents in the country.
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