The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has stressed the need for more children to solve Russia’s growing demographic problems, reports Interfax.
“What’s the good of having economy, if our nation is sick? How will we reclaim these boundless spaces, vast lands, not only in European part of Russia, but in Siberia as well?” said Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia at a meeting of the Belgorod branch of the World Russian People’s Council.
The Russian population has declined by approximately 7 million since 1991, and the fertility rate in 2008 is approximately 1.5 children per woman, well below the replacement level of 2.1. The government has implemented measures to stem the population decline, including issuing payouts for babies.
In January, Russian Health Minister Tatyana Golikova called for a reduction in abortions, stating that that would solve “around 20 to 30 percent” of the population problem.
The Russian government announced in December that 2009 was the first year since 1995 to see population growth, though it rose only by about 20,000.
Commenting on the rise in birth rate, the Patriarch said, “We hope this tendency will be stable and our people rather than strangers with alien culture and alien faith will inhabit our vast lands inherited from God and our hardworking forefathers and this greatest treasure – our land – will be cultivated by descendants of those who merged it to the great Russian state.”
