Moscow:

The Kremlin said Friday that it was “working hard” to reverse declining birth rates in Russia, warning that “disastrous” demographic trends were putting the country’s future at risk.

Russia has faced a myriad of demographic challenges since the collapse of the USSR, including an ageing population, an outflow of men due to the conflict in Ukraine and the lowest fertility rate in 17 years.

“It is now at a terribly low level — 1.4 (births per woman). This is comparable to European countries, Japan and so on. But this is disastrous for the future of the nation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a media festival.

“Anyone with many children is a hero. We live in the largest country in the world. And there are fewer of us every year. And the only way to cope with this is to increase the average birth rate,” Peskov said.

Russia had a population of about 148 million people at the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, a figure that now stands at around 144 million after a protracted period of high deaths and low births in the 1990s.

The country’s birth rate has not recovered since Soviet times despite President Vladimir Putin’s government offering generous payouts and mortgage subsidies to large families.

Recent problems include large numbers of Covid deaths, hundreds of thousands of men fleeing the country to avoid being mobilised to fight in Ukraine, and migration into Russia hitting a ten-year low in 2023.

Russia’s population could drop to 130 million by the 2040s, demographers have forecasted.

When asked whether young families could still have faith in the future, the Kremlin pointed to similar demographics in other countries.

“This is unfortunately a trend,” Peskov said.

“The situation will remain difficult for some period of time, but the government is working hard on this issue, and it is one of the top priorities of the President of Russia,” he added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. File
| Photo Credit: AP

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said on May 7 that information it had received until now on alleged chemical weapons use in Ukraine was “insufficiently substantiated.”

Also read:Explained | Chemical and biological weapons: what international regulations bind Russia?

The OPCW also said it had not yet received an official request to investigate any claims after the United States accused Russia last week of using the toxic agent chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops.

“Both the Russian Federation and Ukraine have accused one another and reported allegations of use of chemical weapons to the Organisation,” the OPCW said in a statement.

“The information provided to the Organisation so far by both sides, together with the information available to the Secretariat, is insufficiently substantiated,” the group added.

The OPCW nevertheless described the situation as “volatile” and “extremely concerning regarding the possible re-emergence of use of toxic chemicals as weapons.”

Last week, the U.S. State Department accused Russia of having used a chemical weapon against Ukrainian forces in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

In addition to the chemical agent chloropicrin, Russia also used “riot control agents [tear gas] as a method of warfare in Ukraine, also in violation of the CWC,” the department said in a factsheet.

Chloropicrin is an oily liquid with a pungent odour known as a choking agent that was widely used during World War I as a form of tear gas.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention label it a “lung-damaging agent” that can cause severe irritation to skin, eyes and respiratory systems.

The OPCW specifically prohibits its use.

Although it does produce tears and is sometimes referred to as a tear gas, it is not classed as a riot control agent.

The Kremlin hit back immediately at the allegations, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying they “sound completely baseless and unsubstantiated.”

Russia has said it no longer possesses a military chemical arsenal, but the country faces pressure for more transparency over the alleged use of toxic weapons.

Moscow has signed and ratified the CWC, which outlaws the production and use of chemical weapons.

“Russia has been and remains committed to its obligations under international law,” Mr. Peskov said last week.

The OPCW recalled in its statement that a member of the body would have to formally request an investigation of any allegation regarding chemical weapons use.

“So far, the Secretariat has not yet received any such request for action,” the OPCW said.

“We will continue to monitor the situation and maintain our readiness to deploy.”

A memorial service has taken place for mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash last week, his spokespeople said on August 29 in a terse statement on social media.
| Photo Credit: AP

A memorial service has taken place for mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash last week, his spokespeople said on August 29 in a terse statement on social media.

“Those who wish to bid their farewell” to the 62-year-old mercenary leader should go to the Porokhovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg, his hometown, the statement said.

Earlier media reports about the funeral mentioned other cemeteries in the city as likely sites for the burial, which has been shrouded in secrecy.

It wasn’t clear from the statement if Prigozhin has already been buried or if it was still to happen.

Earlier, the Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin is not planning to attend a funeral for Prigozhin, who challenged the Russian leader’s authority in an armed rebellion in June. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn’t give any details about the burial because it was a private family matter.

The tight secrecy and confusion surrounding the funeral of Prigozhin and his top lieutenants reflected a dilemma faced by the Kremlin amid swirling speculation that the crash was likely a vendetta for his mutiny.

While it tried to avoid any pomp-filled ceremony for the man branded by Mr. Putin as a traitor for his June 23-24 rebellion, the Kremlin couldn’t afford to denigrate Prigozhin, who was given Russia’s highest award for leading Wagner forces in Ukraine and was idolized by many of the country’s hawks.

Putin’s comments on Prigozhin’s death reflected that careful stand. He noted last week that Wagner leaders “made a significant contribution” to the fighting in Ukraine and described Prigozhin as a ”talented businessman” and “a man of difficult fate” who had “made serious mistakes in life.”

Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin political analyst, noted that Prigozhin has become a legendary figure for his supporters who are increasingly critical of the authorities.

“Prigozhin’s funeral raises an issue of communication between the bureaucratic Russian government system that doesn’t have much political potential and the politically active patriotic segment of the Russian public,” Mr. Markov said.

The country’s top criminal investigation agency, the Investigative Committee, officially confirmed Prigozhin’s death on Sunday.

The committee didn’t say what might have caused Prigozhin’s business jet to plummet from the sky minutes after taking off from Moscow for St. Petersburg. Just before the crash, Prigozhin had returned from a trip to Africa, where he sought to expand Wagner Group’s activities.

Also on Tuesday, a funeral was held at St. Petersburg’s Northern Cemetery for Wagner’s logistics chief Valery Chekalov, who died in the Aug. 23 crash alongside Prigozin.

Prigozhin’s second-in-command, Dmitry Utkin, a retired military intelligence officer who gave the mercenary group its name based on his own nom de guerre, was also among the 10 people killed in the crash.

A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that an intentional explosion caused the plane to crash, and Western officials have pointed to a long list of Putin’s foes who have been assassinated. The Kremlin rejected Western allegations the President was behind the crash as an “absolute lie.”

The crash came exactly two months after the brutal and profane mercenary boss launched a rebellion against the Russian military leadership. Prigozhin ordered his mercenaries to take over the military headquarters in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and then began a march on Moscow. They downed several military aircraft, killing more than a dozen pilots.

Mr. Putin denounced the revolt as “treason” and vowed to punish its perpetrators but hours later struck a deal that saw Prigozhin ending the mutiny in exchange for amnesty and permission for him and his troops to move to Belarus.

The fate of Wagner, which until recently played a prominent role in Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine and was involved in a number of African and Middle Eastern countries, is uncertain.

Mr. Putin said Wagner fighters could sign a contract with the Russian military, move to Belarus or retire from service. Several thousand have deployed to Belarus, where they are in a camp southeast of the capital, Minsk.