Putin Calls for Women To Work and Have 'Many Children' As Birth Rate Falls

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for women to work and have many children, amid a declining birth rate in his country, according to the Kremlin.

Speaking on Wednesday during the fourth annual Eurasian Women's Forum, aimed at discussing women's professional and humanitarian interests in Russia, Putin discussed their roles in society and "women's ideas to the commitment of cooperation and peace," according to a transcript of his speech shared by the Kremlin.

"Russia is traditionally respectful of women. In this regard, our state policy relies on the National Strategy of Action in the Interests of Women," the president said.

"Several initiatives have been put forward toward this end, and proper conditions are being created for women to succeed professionally while remaining guardians of the hearth and lynchpins of large families with many children."

Putin went on to say that women can cope with combining professional careers and motherhood as they are "beautiful, caring and charming" and "possess a secret that men are unable to fathom."

He added that he wishes women "success for the benefit of peace, creation and progress."

Newsweek reached out to Russia's Presidential Press Office for comment via email outside of business hours.

It comes just days after his health minister said Russians should procreate during breaks at work to help address the declining birth rate.

The forum, which ran from September 18 through 20 in St. Petersburg, reportedly had more than 1,500 people in attendance hailing from 126 countries, according to the Kremlin.

Russia is one of the largest countries in the world by population size, according to the World Population Review, but its birth rate has been declining since the 1990s.

The nation recorded its lowest birth rate in 25 years in the first six months of this year, with rising deaths and emigration due to war affecting it.

In February, Putin staked Russia's ethnic survival on improving birth rates and said families need to have at least two children to survive as an ethnic group, but should have three to grow the population, according to Reuters.

Earlier this week, Russian Health Minister Yevgeny Shestopalov urged citizens to "engage in procreation on breaks" during their working day. He went on to say that there is no reason why Russians should not do this because "life flies by too quickly."

Russian Member of Parliament (MP) Tatyana Butskaya encouraged employers to assess the birth rates of female staff members, according to Sky News, while fellow politicians Anna Kuznetsova and Zhanna Ryabtseva called on Russian women to have children younger, at age 18, 19 or 20, to maximize their fertility window.

The push has even been encouraged financially, with women in some regions receiving compensation for giving birth while being full-time students, CBC reported. The initiative to grow the population has also extended to improving fertility testing, as women aged 18 to 40 in Moscow received referrals for a new program.

In 2022, Putin's attempts to persuade Russians to have more children went as far as reintroducing an award dating back to Stalin's time called Mother Heroine, in which families with 10 or more children receive a one-off payment of one million rubles, around $16,000.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the number of children per woman in Russia is currently 1.5 and the country has a population of 140.8 million. A birth rate of 2.1 is needed to sustain a population, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

Russia's Federal State Statistics Service, Rosstat, projected that the nation's population could fall by 15.4 million by 2046.

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