russia Is Drifting Away from “Traditional Values” Toward a State Demand for Children

The kremlin is no longer relying on the “strong family” as the foundation of its demographic policy. Heavy losses in the war against Ukraine have forced russia’s authorities to seek other ways to replenish the population. Now moscow is promoting a new idea: single mothers should give birth to children with state support.

The state duma has passed a law, which, starting December 1, 2026, will allow widows of participants in the “special military operation” to undergo IVF procedures free of charge using their deceased husband’s biological material. “united russia” calls this “honoring the heroes” and an opportunity to continue their lineage. In reality, however, the law fundamentally changes the very approach to artificial insemination. Whereas IVF was previously primarily a means of helping infertile married couples, the state is now effectively encouraging the birth of children in single-parent families.

This appears to be an admission of the failure of the kremlin’s long-standing demographic policy. Instead of creating conditions for children to be born into traditional families, the authorities are launching a new model in which the state assumes the role of a “commissioner” for birth rates. In the future, it will be these very children who will be expected to “repay the state”, for example, through military service.

russia’s authorities won’t see the results of the new law for another two decades. Meanwhile, the ministry of internal affairs is already facing a staffing crisis: the police are short of more than 200,000 officers. At this, the crime rate in russia remains high, and social media scams and phone scams are spreading rapidly. Over the past year and a half, russians have lost more than 600 billion rubles to scammers.

Unable to resolve the staffing shortage, the ministry of internal affairs resorted to an absurdly symbolic solution. Two-meter-tall cardboard and plastic figures of police officers have begun to be installed near ATMs, intended to deter scammers and warn people against transferring money. In other words, they are trying to compensate for the staffing crisis with fake “law enforcement officers”, at least until a new generation of the “state’s children” comes of age.

Procurement of these “immortal” police officers has already begun through the government procurement system. The average cost of a single figure is about 20,000 rubles. The largest number of these figures is planned to be purchased in dagestan.