Kremlin Should Focus on Boosting Size of Couples with Children rather than Pushing Those without to Have at Least One, ‘Kommersant’ Editor Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 11 – Russia’s low birthrate, well below replacement levels, worries many, Ivan Sukhov says; but the country is in a far better position than many others because large percentages of its population tell pollsters they want to have children and the share of Russian families who have three or more has doubled over the last decade.

            According to the deputy editor of Moscow’s Kommersant,  the Kremlin should pursue a demographic policy that looks first of all to those who already have children, because those who haven’t are unlikely to change their minds, and then to removing obstacles such as the absence of housing space that are keeping them from doing so (nakanune.ru/articles/123573/).

            Were the Kremlin to make such a change, it would stop or at least reduce its efforts to get those who have never had children before to give birth, such as teenagers and young adults, and promote expanding the size of families of couples who already have one or more children and thus have demonstrated that they really want children if conditions are right.

            That would likely require subsidizing the construction of housing with more square meters of space, but taking that step would likely bboostinge far more successful in boosting the birthrate in Russia than current exhortations that all Russian women should have children, something that isn’t going to happen in any case.