Vladimir Putin has signed a decree establishing the Council on Demographic and Family Policy. The new advisory body in the Kremlin will prepare for the “president” “proposals for improving” state policy in the field of demography. Putin has entrusted the role of head of the council to the speaker of the Federation Council, 75-year-old Valentina Matvienko.
In her new position, she will have to urgently find a solution to the growing demographic crisis. “As early as next year, it is necessary to create conditions for turning the demographic situation around,” Putin said last week at a meeting of the council on strategic development and national projects. “It is necessary to do everything that depends on us to further achieve the birth rate in our country on a steady growth, on a positive trend,” the “president” demanded.
Putin set a goal back in 2018 to stop the natural population decline in six years, which the country faced shortly after the annexation of Crimea. But despite the national project “Demography” worth four trillion rubles, the country lost 3.5 million people in 2016-23 as a result of the excess of mortality over birth rate. According to last year’s results, the number of births in Russia fell to its lowest level since 1999: 1.264 million babies were born – a third less than in 2014 (1.94 million).
In 2024, according to Rosstat’s operational statistics, the birth rate sank even lower, to a historic low of 599,600 children in the first half of the year. In response, the Kremlin, on Putin’s instructions, has developed a strategy of “family-centeredness”: it requires promoting “traditional values,” strengthening the institution of family and marriage, introducing images of large families into media content, and introducing state awards for grandparents with many grandchildren.
