The Global Jigsaw: Russia’s “special demographic operation”

全球拼图:俄罗斯的“特殊人口行动”

The Explanation

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2024-11-02

39 分钟

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Why is the Kremlin worried about population decline? President Putin has made the increase of human capital a national priority. Decision-makers have been competing to offer a solution, from fiscal incentives to encourage women to have more children, to restricting access to abortion, to banning "propaganda" of “childless lifestyle”. Will their plan work? Producer: Francis Scarr, Veronika Malinboym, Kriszta Satori, Elchin Suleymanov Presenter: Krassi Twigg

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  • Is Unexpected elements from the BBC World Service Search for unexpected elements wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

  • You'll have heard of Russia's special military operation, but are you aware of its special duty demographic operation?

  • Demographers in Moscow are saying the population is shrinking fast.

  • In 2014, which was the most recent high point of the birth rate, 2 million children were born.

  • But in 2024, it's forecast to fall to 1.2 million.

  • That's a decline of a third in just 10 years.

  • One pundit lamented on state TV that the nation is dying out.

  • The country's leaders are alarmed.

  • I think it's fair to say that this has become a priority for the Russian state and even somewhat of an obsession.

  • And there's no shortage of proposals on how to reverse the population decline.

  • There is a variety of them and they're so diverse, officials are almost trying to compete in proposing more outlandish measures to boost the childbirth rates.

  • In this episode, we explore the ideas aimed at future proofing the Russian nation, from the sensible to the more controversial to the slightly bonkers ones.

  • Will the plan work?

  • And what if it doesn't?

  • Welcome to the explanation from the BBC World Service.

  • Hi, I'm Krasi Twig and this is the Global Jigsaw from BBC Monitoring, where we look at the world through the lens of its media, getting past the narratives, the propaganda and the disinformation.

  • Western countries are not the international community.

  • That era has finished.