Russia's birth rates have been falling for decades, and the war in Ukraine has made it worse.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is urging Russians to have more children. 
"Large families must become the norm," Putin said in a speech Tuesday. 
Russian birth rates are falling amid war in Ukraine and a deepening economic crisis.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is urging women to have as many as eight children as the number of dead Russian soldiers continues to rise in his war with Ukraine, worsening the country’s population crisis.

Addressing the World Russian People’s Council in Moscow on Tuesday, Putin said the country must return to a time when large families were the norm.

“Many of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers, had seven, eight, or even more children,” Putin said.

    • Amanduh
      24•1 year ago

      What doesn’t make sense to me is that even if women start churning out babies putin will be dead by the time theyre at fighting age? Is he just trying to help the next war hungry dictator after him?

        • @Wrench@lemmy.worldEnglish
          38•1 year ago

          The entire reason he started this war was for legacy. He wanted to be the dictator that rebuilt the USSR like he always dreamed, and he’s running out of time, so he forced it and dug his heels in.

          He does not want to be remembered as the dictator that killed off a generation with nothing to show for it, and set back Russia 100 years.

      • @LillyPip@lemmy.caEnglish
        9•1 year ago

        He’s trying to be the legend who remade the Russian Empire of the late 1800s. It doesn’t matter so much that he’s alive for the Great Payoff™ – he needs to be the biggest name in the history books for centuries to come.

        He knows he’s old and will die, and he knows he’s not going to achieve his big goals soon enough to directly benefit. So now he’s looking at his legacy.

        That’s the stage when dictators *and narcissists become truly dangerous, by the way, because knowing they won’t directly see the fruits of their labour, they have less to lose.

        e: added a word*