Putin has a second priority
Vladimir Putin has launched yet another recruitment campaign to equip his army with enough troops for his war in Ukraine. He has a second priority: boosting birth rates.
President Vladimir Putin has launched two campaigns to increase Russia's military ranks and birth rate. He has ordered the army to recruit an additional 180,000 recruits to form an army of 1.5 million soldiers to support Russia's war in Ukraine.
The Kremlin has encouraged military recruitment with higher recruitment bonuses and a new law allowing criminal suspects to avoid trial by joining the army.
At the same time, Putin has made encouraging births a national priority, with financial incentives for women and a law banning advocacy of a child-free lifestyle.
These efforts reflect Putin's vision to mobilise Russians - men for war and women to produce more children - to make Russia stronger in its isolation from the West and counter demographic decline.
Analysts, however, doubt the feasibility of a 1.5 million-man army given Russia's shrinking population. Despite major recruitment efforts, many Russians remain sceptical about the Russian state's push for traditional, larger families.
(HL/Source: NY Times/Illustration picture: picture alliance / globallookpress.com | Belkin Alexey)