Almost Half of Russia’s Regions Now Paying Bonuses to School-Age Girls who Give Birth Despite Public Opposition and Expert Predictions Such Aid won’t Boost Birthrate

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 14 – Because Putin has said that women who have their first child earliest will have more children later in life, a proposition experts dispute, 37 regions are now paying enormous bonuses of up to 345,000 rubles (4,000 US dollars) to school-age girls who give register and give birth to a child.

            On this rapidly expanding program, see svoboda.org/a/stavropolje-lidiruet-v-strane-po-chislu-vyplachennyh-posobiy-za-rannyuyu-beremennostj/33853818.html and nemoskva.net/2026/09/14/posobiya-dlya-beremennyh-shkolnicz-vveli-v-37-regionah-rossii/.

            But not only Russian demographers are casting doubt on the premises of this program, arguing that such bonuses will change only when women give birth and not how often they do so, but many Russian citizens are opposed to it because they see it violating moral norms and harming the health of these women and their children (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/03/moscows-promotion-of-abortion-bans-and.html).

            That this program has taken off in this way highlights both the power of a Putin suggestion to get the regions and republics to fall in line and the failure of other programs to boost the birthrate. Because of that, Moscow and those it controls seem now prepared to try even this risky strategy which in all likelihood will fail.