Regional health minister says those who are busy with careers can ‘create offspring’ on work breaks
While addressing a crowd at the Eurasian Women’s Forum in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed government policy geared toward helping women achieve the ultimate balance — professional success while being the linchpin “of a large, large family.”
He went on to joke that Russian women can manage it easily, and still remain “beautiful, gentle and charming.”
His comments are the latest in a public push by government officials to try and reverse Russia’s sinking birth rate by appealing to a sense of patriotic duty and promising financial incentives to sway prospective parents.
Russia’s fertility rate — which measures the average number of children born to a woman over a lifetime — stands at approximately 1.4, less than what is considered the rate for population replacement, which is 2.1. Kremlin officials have labelled Russia’s statistic “catastrophic,” and it comes at a time of higher mortality among younger Russian men due to the war in Ukraine.
I doubt they fear surrender.
It’s more like preferring quick and painless suicide over lying in the field maimed and in desperate pain wishing you had died. Maybe you’ll die slowly as you bleed out. May e you’ll be a target of the new thermite drone and be set on fire to die in agony. Maybe you’ll live on in pain and disfigurement with no hope for the future. Maybe you’re not there willingly and do not want to kill or see your friends killed
Still, it’s been proven time and time again that the Ukrainians generally accept surrender, even towards drones. It is an extreme decision to choose certain death over a chance at captivity
