Putin advises Russians to have more kids, says ethnic survival at stake

Russian families need to produce at least two children for the sake of the nation's ethnic survival, and 3 or more if it is to establish and thrive, President Vladimir Putin stated on Thursday.

Russia has suffered heavy but undisclosed casualties because introducing its war in Ukraine almost 2 years ago, and hundreds of thousands of people have gotten away the country out of opposition to the dispute or worry of being called up to fight.

Putin told workers at a tank factory in the Urals area If the, that 2 children per family was the minimum number peoples of Russia were to preserve their identities.

If we want to survive as an ethnic group - well, or as ethnic groups living in Russia - there must be at least 2 kids, he said.

If each household had just one child, the population would diminish, he said. And in order to establish and broaden, you need a minimum of three children.

Putin declares himself an advocate of standard values based upon household, nation and the Orthodox Christian faith. In the course of his 24 years in power, the country has severely limited expressions of sexual preference and gender identity and prohibited the LGBT movement as extremist.

Russia suffered two decades of steady population decrease following the collapse of the Soviet Union, worsened by persistent problems such as alcohol addiction.

The state data bureau approximated the population at 146.4 million at the start of 2023, down from almost 149 million Twenty years previously but up from a low of about 143 million in between 2007 and 2012.

(source: Reuters)