russia Cuts Family Benefits Amid a Demographic Crisis

In russia, government measures to support the birth rate have become a myth. The programs that officials touted at the beginning of the year have either been suspended or significantly scaled back. An acute shortage of funds in the federal and regional budgets has become a “black swan” event, prioritizing economic savings over demographic issues.

The program offering one million rubles in mortgage payments (450,000 “federal” and 550,000 “regional”) is no longer in effect in most federal subjects. Today, these payments are officially announced in only 17 regions, but in reality they are available only in amur, magadan, and kemerovo regions, the khabarovsk and kamchatka territories, and the chukotka autonomous okrug.

The state-owned “sberbank” is phasing out its program to subsidize interest rates on housing loans. Even russian developers actively used this program to stimulate real estate sales. As a result, by the end of July, the volume of subsidized mortgages had fallen by 25% compared to the previous month.

These processes are taking place unnoticed by the average russian. Officially, the kremlin says nothing about scaling back support for young families in the area of real estate purchases. In other words, everyone who was hoping for government assistance upon the birth of a third child has now been left high and dry.

According to sociological studies, today’s so-called russian support programs serve more as a source of frustration for russians than as an incentive. And all of this is taking place against the background of a deep demographic crisis in russia. In the first quarter of 2025, russia set a sort of “anti-record” for birth rates, matching levels seen in the 18th –19th centuries – 288,000 children – after which rosstat classified the official statistics as confidential.