Russia has grappled with a shrinking and aging population for decades, with President Vladimir Putin viewing it as a threat to national security
For a quarter century, President Vladimir Putin has faced the spectre of Russia’s shrinking and aging population. He mainly tried to reverse it by making abortion illegal in the past, but that has never helped as the problem is limited accommodation and low incomes.
In 1999, a year before Putin came to power, the number of babies born in Russia plunged to its lowest recorded level. In 2005, Putin said the demographic woes needed to be resolved by maintaining “social and economic stability.” In 2019, he said the problem still “haunted” the country. More recently, there have been a large number of deaths of Russian men of military age in the war against Ukraine.
Putin has found no answers.
SOURCE: ABC News, by Katie Marie Davies, Associated Press, 25 October 2025 (page unavailable)