What is Russia's population policy?

On May 6, 2006, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered this year's State of the Union address to the Russian Federation, focusing on two "major issues", namely population and military development. In the Russian President's State of the Union address, the population issue was discussed as the main topic and ranked first. This is unprecedented, which proves that Russia's population problem is quite serious and forces the Russian authorities to make it a priority problem.

For Russia, the increasingly serious population problem is no longer an ordinary social problem, but a major political and economic issue related to the future of the country and the destiny of the nation. From 1993 to now, the total population of Russia has been declining for 13 years, and the permanent population has dropped from 19921483.26 million to1434.74 million at the beginning of 2005, with a decrease of 4.852 million. In particular, from 1992 to 2004, the Russian government * * * absorbed 6,946,300 immigrants, in addition to receiving1600,000 forced immigrants and refugees. If these foreigners are not counted, the actual population decline in Russia is more than1300,000, with an average annual decrease of more than 65,438. At present, Russia's natural population growth trajectory is still in a downward channel.

The continuous decline of Russian population is not a local phenomenon in individual regions, but a nationwide and widespread phenomenon. In September 2002, at the time of the national census, 74% of the federal entities experienced negative population growth; From June, 5438 to October, 2005, the number of federal entities with declining population increased to 8 1%. Of the 89 federal entities, only 12 population increased, and five were flat. Due to the large population decline, a very miserable social scene has appeared in the vast urban and rural areas. In cities, because the population has not met the basic requirements of cities, many urban organizational systems have been revoked or merged; In rural areas, due to the natural loss of population or the migration of residents, a large number of uninhabited villages have been formed, and the fields are barren.

The main reasons for Russia's population decline are low birth rate and high death rate. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the total fertility rate of Russian women has been declining, from 190 1 to 1905 to 7. 12, 195 1 to 2.86,1. In 1970s and 1980s, the birth rate in Russia remained basically between 14‰~ 17‰, and the death rate was roughly between 8‰~ 12‰, and the total population grew slowly. In 1990s, the birth rate dropped further, from 13.4‰ to 8.3‰, while the death rate rose from 1 1.2‰ to 14.7‰, reaching the peak 15.7‰, which inevitably led to a population deficit. In recent years, the birth rate in Russia has increased slightly, but the death rate has increased even faster, and the population reproduction capacity is still significantly lower than the intergenerational replacement level.

Due to the persistent low birth rate, Russia's population structure has formed a prominent "inverted pyramid" type, with fewer and fewer children and increasingly depleted labor reserves. From 1970 to 2005, the proportion of Russian children in the total population decreased from 29% to 17%. The decrease in the number of children has greatly increased the proportion of the elderly population. According to international practice, when a country's elderly population over 60 years old accounts for 10% of the total population, or the elderly population over 65 years old reaches 7% of the total population, it means that the country has begun to enter an aging society. As of June 5438+ 10, 2005, the population over 60 years old in Russia has accounted for 17.33% of the total population, and the population over 65 years old has accounted for 13.72% of the total population. So Russia is a veritable aging country.

Excessive mortality has also reduced the average life expectancy in Russia. According to the survey data of the United Nations Population Organization, in 2004, the average life expectancy of men and women in the world reached 63.3 years and 67.6 years respectively. The specific situation of several continents is: Africa -47.9 /50.0 years old, Asia -65.5 /69.0 years old, Europe -70. 10 years old. The average life expectancy of Russian men and women is only 60.8 years and 73. 1 year respectively, which is lower than the world average and only slightly better than that of African countries.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has always attached great importance to the development of the domestic population situation and the formulation of population policies. Since he took office, he has instructed the relevant government departments to study the population development strategy and repeatedly stressed the importance and urgency of the population problem to Russia. Putin's population policy and conception are mainly reflected in his series of speeches and instructions.

The core of Putin's population policy is to change the existing values, return to tradition, respect the traditional values, attach importance to the family, establish the glorious concept of raising children, and emphasize the individual's responsibility to the family, children, and then to the country and society. He said: "If we don't change the attitude of the whole society towards family and family values, it will be impossible to solve the problem of low birth rate. Academician Likhachev once wrote that love for one's hometown and motherland stems from love for one's family. We should restore our ancient values of loving our family and hometown. " We should vigorously publicize the glorious idea of parenthood and create conditions for improving the fertility rate and children's education. "In his State of the Union address in 2006, Putin asked the government to formulate a huge financial subsidy plan for 10 in detail to support population development and take the gradual stabilization of the population as the focus of work. Its specific content includes the following aspects:

1. Reduce mortality. The survey shows that the first cause of death is various diseases, followed by traffic accidents and alcoholism. In Russia, millions of people die of diseases every year, with an average of 100 people dying in car accidents every day and about 40,000 people dying of alcoholism every year. To this end, Putin proposed the implementation of the national "health plan", calling for the revitalization of the traditional discipline of Russian medicine-disease prevention, focusing on the discovery, prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases and other diseases with high mortality; Restrain the occurrence of all kinds of personal injury and death accidents and formulate traffic safety plans; Restrict the import and sale of alcoholic beverages and call on people to stay away from drugs and establish a healthy lifestyle.

2. Absorb immigrants. Putin believes that formulating an effective immigration policy is an important step to stabilize the population. "The growth of the country's population must be supplemented by a mature and perfect immigration strategy." On the criteria for choosing immigrants, Putin insisted on first considering introducing Russians from abroad, followed by absorbing other ethnic groups with "professional skills" and "good education and law-abiding". Putin stressed that immigrants must respect Russian culture and national traditions. At the same time, Putin advocates granting Russian citizenship to immigrants. "Every legal immigrant should be eligible to become a Russian citizen." 3. Increase the birth rate. Putin believes that the fundamental way to solve the population problem is to increase the birth rate, and advocates guiding and encouraging young people to have more children by means of economic compensation. The specific contents of economic compensation include increasing the family allowance for newborns, granting subsidies for children's preschool education, subsidizing pregnant women and parturients, encouraging and subsidizing the adoption of orphans, setting up "mother capital", allowing Russian women to raise their children with peace of mind, safeguarding the rights and interests of women raising children, establishing a network of modern health centers, and subsidizing families with many children.

4. Improve pension benefits. Give priority to social pension funds. Putin suggested that the government increase the pension by 20% in 2007, and then continuously improve the welfare of retirees according to economic development, so that the older generation who have contributed to social development can enjoy their old age and prolong their life.

Putin's population policy has clear objectives and specific measures. If it can be implemented one by one, it will undoubtedly contribute to the stability of the Russian population. However, Russia's population problem is the result of years of accumulation, which conforms to the natural law of Russian population development and cannot be easily changed by a few policies. According to the predictions of Russian official and non-governmental organizations and international population organizations, the Russian population will continue to decrease in the coming decades.