Putin says Russia can repeat mid-2000s success in raising birth rate

Russia has already succeeded in improving its demographic situation after the crisis of the 1990s and can repeat that experience, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, September 3, as he described the country’s demographic challenges as a national-security issue.

Speaking at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum, Putin pointed to the mid-2000s as a period when Russia recorded a significant improvement in demographic indicators.

“In the mid-2000s, we achieved this. There was a noticeable increase,” Putin said.

He acknowledged that Russia’s current birth rate was not at its lowest level, but said it remained insufficient in the context of the country’s demographic needs. The government, he added, considers demographic trends a matter of national security.

Putin also compared Russia’s birth rate with those of other countries, citing particularly low levels in South Korea and Japan.

“If we talk about the region where we are now, the Far East, we are not in the worst position. You know that in South Korea it is 0.7. More than twice as low as ours. In Japan, the birth rate is approximately at the same level. But that does not mean at all that we should use this as a benchmark. We should look to the best figures, and that is what we are striving for,” Putin said.

He stressed that Russia should not measure its demographic performance against countries with lower fertility rates, but instead seek to achieve the strongest possible indicators.

By Tamilla Hasanova