Russia's Desperate Scramble To Stave Off Demographic Catastrophe

Russia has moved in recent weeks to push for the adoption of a number of measures to avert a severe demographic crisis that has been compounded by President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.

Valery Seleznyov, a member of the Russian State Duma, last week proposed releasing women convicted of minor charges from prisons so they can conceive. There have also been recent attempts to restrict abortion, which is at present legal and widely available in Russia.

"Russia really does have a demographic problem," the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, said on November 12 as he called for a nationwide ban on "encouraging women to have abortions."

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry via email for comment.

"It's a vast country, but there are not enough people. Not even mentioning the economy...We really need more people, this is obvious, everyone admits it," he said.

During a meeting with members of his Civic Chamber on November 3, Putin said Russia has an acute abortion problem.

In recent months, private clinics in Russian regions—including in the Chelyabinsk region in the Ural mountains and in Tatarstan in central Russia—have stopped offering abortions, according to authorities. The move is also being considered in Russia's Kaliningrad region.

Authorities have also started to restrict access to abortion pills and emergency contraception amid a surge in demand that followed the beginning of the war in Ukraine. In 2022, sales of abortion pills were up 60 percent, according to Nikolay Bespalov, development director of the RNC Pharma analytical company, the Associated Press reported.

Russia for decades has been experiencing a population decline, and this appears to have worsened amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, with high casualty rates and men fleeing the country to avoid being conscripted to fight.

As of January 1, 2023, 146.45 million people were estimated to be residing on the Russian territory, marking a decrease of approximately 530,000 from the previous year, according to Statista.

It is estimated that Russia's population will fall to about 132 million in the next two decades. The United Nations has predicted that in a worst-case scenario, by the start of the next century, Russia's population could almost halve to 83 million, Newsweek previously reported.

State Duma member Sultan Khamzaev proposed in an appeal earlier this month to Tatyana Golikova, Russia's deputy prime minister for social policy, labor, health and pension provision, that authorities should offer payouts to Russian women who refuse to have an abortion.

"The state must have a maternal protective function, and if a woman has already decided to have an abortion, then the most effective way to save the child is to take him into the care of the state," Khamzaev said.

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