With Russian Birthrate Continuing to Plummet, Putin Orders Reproductive Health Screenings for Wide Swath of Population

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 28 – With Russian birthrates continuing to plummet despite all the Kremlin’s efforts to reverse that trend, Vladimir Putin has directed the health ministry to conduct more medical check-ups to assess the reproductive health of the population and thus the ability of both men and women to have children (ehorussia.com/new/node/34486).

            According to Health Minister Mikhail Murashko, such screenings have already begun and are proving “highly popular,” but these have been voluntary and relatively few in number. It is unclear how Russians will respond especially if they are compelled to undergo such examinations and if the authorities use the outcomes to direct them to have more children.

            Moreover, it is unclear who will conduct these tests in many parts of the country because Putin’s healthcare “optimization” program has resulted in the shuttering of many medical points or how the regime will pay for such tests. Indeed, they may become yet another unfunded liability imposed on the regions.

            The most likely use of data collected from such tests, however widespread they prove to be, will be a government effort to shift the blame for the plummeting birth rates away from Putin policies to the physical conditions of Russians. But such efforts are likely to backfire because many will recognize such physical problems are typically the result of social ones.