Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly encouraged Russians to engage in intimate relations during lunch and coffee breaks at work to address the country’s declining birth rate. The initiative comes as Russia’s fertility rate, currently at about 1.5 children per woman, falls significantly below the 2.1 rate required to maintain a stable population, Metro reported. Additionally, over a million, primarily younger Russians, have left the country amid the ongoing war with Ukraine

Health Minister Dr Yevgeny Shestopalov emphasised that being too busy at work is not a valid excuse for avoiding procreation. He suggested that people could take advantage of breaks to focus on expanding their families, noting that ”life flies by too quickly.”

When a reporter asked him how people working 12 to 14 hours a day would find time to have children, he responded by suggesting they could use their break times.

Previously, Putin has insisted, ”The preservation of the Russian people is our highest national priority. The fate of Russia….depends on how many of us there will be. It is a question of national importance.”

Notably, Russia’s birth rate has hit its lowest point since 1999, with the number of live births in June falling below 100,000. This drastic drop has raised concerns in Moscow about a severe population decline. According to Rosstat, Russia’s governmental statistics agency, the country has seen a significant decrease in births, with 16,000 fewer children born between January and June 2024 compared to the same period last year, as per Euro News. 

This decline is further exacerbated by an 18% increase in population decline, with 49,000 more deaths recorded in 2024 than the previous year, likely due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

The Kremlin’s efforts to boost Russia’s declining birth rate have led to a series of measures, including:

• Free fertility checks: Women in Moscow, aged 18-40, are encouraged to undergo free fertility assessments to evaluate their “reproductive potential”.
• Employer coercion: MP Tatyana Butskaya has proposed a plan to pressure employers into encouraging their female employees to have children.
• Incentives: Chelyabinsk region is offering 8,500 pounds to female students under 24 for their first child’s birth
• Restricting abortion: Access to abortion across the country is being blocked as public figures and churchmen claim women’s duty is to give birth and raise children.
• Divorce fees: Fees for divorce have been increased to discourage separation.

Politician Anna Kuznetsova has also demanded women start giving birth at a young age. She said: ”You should start giving birth at 19-20 years old. Then, statistically, the family will be able to have three, four, or more children.”

However, critics argue these policies undermine individual autonomy, particularly for women, and may have unintended consequences on Russia’s social fabric.

Moscow:

At memorials to Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in an unexplained plane crash exactly 40 days ago, dozens of mourners hailed the mutinous mercenary chief as a patriotic hero of Russia who had spoken truth to power.

The private Embraer jet on which Prigozhin was travelling to St. Petersburg crashed north of Moscow killing all 10 people on board on Aug. 23, including two other top Wagner figures, Prigozhin’s four bodyguards, and a crew of three.

It is still unclear what caused the plane to crash two months to the day since Prigozhin’s failed mutiny. The Kremlin said on Aug. 30 that investigators were considering the possibility that the plane was downed on purpose.

At his grave in the former imperial capital of St. Petersburg, his mother, Violetta, and his son, Pavel, laid flowers. Supporters waved the black flags of Wagner which sport a skull and the motto “Blood, Honour, Motherland, Courage”.

In Eastern Orthodoxy, it is believed that the soul makes its final journey to either heaven or hell on the 40th day after death.

At memorials in Moscow and other Russian cities, dozens of Wagner fighters and ordinary Russians paid their respects, though there was no mass outpouring of grief. Russian state television was silent.

“He can be criticized for certain events, but he was a patriot who defended the motherland’s interests on different continents,” Wagner’s recruitment arm said in a statement on Telegram.

“He was charismatic and importantly he was close to the fighters and to the people. And that’s why he became popular both in Russia and abroad,” it said.

Prigozhin’s mutiny posed the biggest challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s rule since the former KGB spy rose to power in 1999. Western diplomats say it exposed the strains on Russia of the war in Ukraine.

“Leader”

After months of insulting Putin’s top brass with a variety of crude expletives and prison slang over their perceived failure to fight the Ukraine war properly, Prigozhin took control of the southern city of Rostov in late June.

His fighters shot down a number of Russian aircraft, killing their pilots, and advanced towards Moscow before turning back 200 km (125 miles) from the capital.

Putin initially cast Prigozhin as a traitor whose mutiny could have tipped Russia into civil war, though he later made a deal with him to defuse the crisis.

Mourners spoke of respect for Prigozhin.

“He was a real authority, a leader,” Mikhail, a serviceman in Russia’s armed forces who refused to give his second name, told Reuters.

Moscow resident Marta, who also refused to give her surname, said the people believed in Prigozhin but that Wagner had been “decapitated” by the deaths of him and co-founder Dmitry Utkin.

“Hope for justice died with him,” she said. “People believed in him.”

Pro-Wagner groups posted a video of Prigozhin flying to Mali where, after a thunderstorm, he met a senior commander known by his call sign “Lotus” – Anton Yelizarov – who is now reported to be leading the group.

Opponents such as the United States cast Wagner as a brutal crime group that plundered African states and meted out sledgehammer deaths to those who challenged it.

Putin was on Friday shown meeting one of the most senior former commanders of the Wagner mercenary group and discussing how best to use “volunteer units” in the Ukraine war.

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