To Get Positive Demographic Numbers, Vologda Oblast Paying Women from Neighboring Regions to Register Their Children in Vologda

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 9 – It was perhaps inevitable once regional officials had experience with abortion tourism and were told by Moscow that they would be rated on how much they were able to boost birthrates that some would try to get better demographic numbers by paying women in other federal subjects to register children not where they are born but in the region paying them.

            That has now happened in Vologda where officials seeking to boost that oblast’s birthrate by paying mothers in other federal subjects to register children not where they were born but in Vologda (t.me/microsocium_inc/3995 and nemoskva.net/2026/01/09/import-mladenczev-v-vologodskoj-oblasti-platili-za-registracziyu-detej-iz-drugih-regionov-radi-statistiki/).

            Vologda officials promise to pay up to 100,000 rubles (8,000 US dollars) for the registration of a first or second child and up to 300,000 rubles (25,000 US dollars) for the third, fourth or more children whose numbers Moscow is especially eager to produce and seeks to measure.

            This system may be working. Vologda Governor Georgy Filimonov just before the new year celebrated on his telegram channel what he said was the fact that “for the first time in a decade,” Vologda had see a rise in the number of babies registered, 45 more in 2025 than in 2024 (t.me/filimonov_official/30064).

            Journalists have already shown that these figures are false and reflect the program of getting women from other federal subjects to register in Vologda. In the first ten days of December 2025, there were some 119 “imported” births recorded, an indication that in Vologda as in many other predominantly ethnic Russian regions births are continuing to fall.

            Not surprisingly, the governor declared such journalist reports as “insinuations and provocations” designed to try to distract attention from “our righteous achievements” (t.me/filimonov_official/30750).  Filimonov is notorious for falsifying data, but it is likely that he is not alone in trying to come up with the numbers the Kremlin wants.

            That possibility needs to be kept in mind whenever officials in Moscow or the regions make claims of a major shift in demographic behavior that does not appear to reflect underlying changes in the region or regions where this development is being claimed.