Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with national media on March 26 that improving the demographic situation and achieving sustainable growth in birth rate is a vital issue for Russia.
President Vladimir Putin has designated 2024 as the "Year of the Family" in Russia and according to the Kremlin Spokesperson, this issue is of special importance to the country.
"ants are probably Achilles heels, our biggest problem. This problem cannot be solved in a day or two. Therefore, we really need to continue to take all possible measures to overcome the demographic situation, Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told argument i facty.
Mr. Peskov added that Russia will continue to focus on improving the quality of family life by expanding the maternity allowance program and providing more financial benefits for single mothers and families with many children.
Peskov, a father of six, said: At the same time, promoting large families is possible and necessary. Having many children should become trendy. That is why traditional values are so important to us. That is a matter of life and death for a country with a large territory like us".
"Our country's population should be larger! We have only 7 million people living outside the Urals. We have to have children, we have to increase the ability to move and live in different cities, all places have to be as comfortable as the others" - he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with workers at Uralvagonzavod Company - a major Russian manufacturer of weapons and military equipment - in the Nizhny Tagil region of the Urals in mid-February said: "Supporting young families is an absolute priority if we want to preserve ethnic groups living in Russia. And to do this, each family must have at least two children, and must have three children if we want to develop and expand".
Mr. Putin once noted that having a child early is the best solution. Couples who wait until they are 30 or later will no longer have the time and energy to have more than one child, which is why the government focuses on helping young families.
In his speech to the Federal Assembly last month, President Vladimir Putin admitted that Russia, like many other countries, are facing a decline in birth rates. He suggested that all levels of government, civil society and religion should cooperate to turn large families into social standards, the foundation of social life and the guiding principle for the state's strategy.
President Putin has raised the issue of family size in the past, pointing to the prolonged consequences of the demographic collapse in the 1990s, which are as serious as World War 2.
While the number of abortions in Russia has decreased significantly since 2000, the number of births in 2023 will only reach more than 1.2 million cases, the lowest level since 1999. Russia's National Statistical Office Rosstat predicts that the birth rate will continue to decrease until 2027.
