Encouraging New Mums in Russia

While the West continues to try to replace its own ageing and shrinking populations with immigrants, Russia is moving steadily towards a "pro-natalist" approach.

The latest pro-life initiative comes from a group of deputies from the opposition nationalist LDPR. Led by party leader Leonid Slutsky, the party prepared and submitted for approval to the Russian government a bill establishing a benefit for women who gave birth before the age of 25 in the amount of 200,000 rubles (approximately $2100 USD) for each child.

The law “On State Benefits for Citizens with Children” proposes to include new provisions according to which a woman who gives birth to her first and subsequent children before the age of 25 will receive the right to a payment from the state in the amount of 200 thousand rubles for each child.

All women under 25 years of age will be able to apply for such a payment, regardless of their financial situation, the authors noted. It is assumed that the procedure and conditions for assigning payments will be established by the Cabinet of Ministers.

The grinding poverty and social dislocation that followed the collapse of the Soviet system saw Russia's life expectancy and birth rates nosedive. Both are now heading steadily in the right direction. There's a lesson that our rulers in the West should learn here, but we won't hold our breath!

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