Putin's Russia by Stephen K. Wegren

Author:Stephen K. Wegren
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781442239197
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

CONCLUSION

During the 1990s, demographic issues were largely ignored by the Russian government, but in his 2006 state of the nation address, Putin identified the demographic decline as the country’s largest problem. His speech addressing population policy is without parallel by a European head of state.71 He laid out programs to lower the death rate, increase the birth rate, and more effectively manage migration. Following that speech, Putin issued a decree to adopt the “Concept on Demographic Policy of Russia until 2025.”72 The program was implemented during 2008–2010 and came at a time when Russia has the financial resources to commit. It is too early to fully measure the effectiveness of these policies, but it is a positive sign that the government is taking the dire demographic situation seriously and taking concrete steps to address them.

Not surprisingly, new president Putin is likely to continue the demographic policy agenda laid out by him in his first administration and expanded upon by former president Dmitry Medvedev. In his first state of the nation address in November 2008, Medvedev reemphasized the importance of increased education, healthy lifestyles, ethnic tolerance, internal mobility, and regulation of immigration, including recruitment of those highly skilled.73 However, there is only so much a government can do to affect fertility, mortality, and migration trends. The federal government, regional governments, business, the media, and most importantly, the population itself all must contribute, and success depends on social and economic factors outside government control. Empirical evidence has shown that there is a two-way relationship between economic growth and improved health.74 Russia needs to use its recent economic prosperity to improve its dire demographics, lest it fall into a spiral of demographic and economic decline.

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