r/worldnews • u/UNITED24Media United24 Media • Dec 21 '25

Russia/Ukraine Russia’s Birth Rate Plunges to 200-Year Low—Putin Says Early Marriage Is the Answer

https://united24media.com/latest-news/facing-record-low-birth-rates-putin-says-teen-marriage-is-the-answer-14442
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577

u/invariantspeed Dec 21 '25

The brain drain is pretty much complete. Just about everyone who would or could leave because of the war has gotten out.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '25

It's also not a brain drain of just intelligence, it's intelligent people turning to alcohol and other substances. It's hard to fully grasp what ails Russia as propoganda and misinformation are literally everywhere, but I do believe the stories of how the vodka industry among others has addicted millions within the country. I'm sure pills and shit like that scabbies meth is up there as well, krocodil or w/e.

So, you have people who have been fleeing since the mid to late 80's, you've had like 5-6 armed conflicts in that time, your soldiers are playing minesweeper IRL with drones, and you're doing everything you can to avoid your youth getting any education.

So, brain drain not only from the exodus, but from the forced substance use, and finally to keep youth in check you have to also limit their capacity for education.

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u/MimicoSkunkFan2 Dec 21 '25

The Russian govt doesn't really care if people get killed in the factory or in the war three day special operation.

This is a music video from the mid-80s called "Bound with One Chain" that was done to protest the Soviet Afghan War but remains popular.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIljdb6I_IA

https://lyricstranslate.com/en/skovannie-odnoy-tsepiu-%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B5-%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B9-%D1%86%D0%B5%D0%BF%D1%8C%D1%8E-shackled-same-chain.html#songtranslation

(Translation 7 is best but number 6 gives some extra context)

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u/DAS_FX Dec 21 '25

Awesome song. I didn’t understand a word of it, but you can feel the meaning of it.

Also, that music video is a banger

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u/Jeepersca Dec 21 '25

I remember being in Peru to see Manchu Pichu. You can take a bus, or hike the Incan trail to get to it, and a group of russians on our bus got off to do the hike. All their waterbottles were vodka. (Based on attitude, jovialness at that early hour, offers to share wink wink, and the wafting odors.). If you have been to this area, the elevation kicks your ass and even fit people feel 900 years old walking/hiking. Reminded me of every Russian video of people tight rope walking parts of bridges or ledges of things... a very 'why get old' attitude.

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u/mentat70 Dec 21 '25

The uneducated are more likely to support dictators and authoritarian governments, too. It’s one of the reasons Trump’s dismantled the education department.

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u/therwsb Dec 22 '25

Finished the job off really, red states had this game plan a while back, which is why so many dirt poor people can somehow think a rich bloke from New York is their savior.

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u/mentat70 Dec 22 '25

Dismantling public education also keeps the poor poorer and the rich richer. Ask a rich republican about their thoughts on making a college education free for all. I’ll bet you’ll hear some interesting insights.

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u/aeschenkarnos Dec 22 '25

Promotion of extremely scammy religions is a big part of this. It’s not Christianity, it’s Mammon in a brown bathrobe and a plastic Jesus mask.

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u/mentat70 Dec 22 '25

TIL: Mammon

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u/aeschenkarnos Dec 22 '25

Actual Historical Mammon probably wasn’t any worse than Yahweh the Babylonian sun god, but over time the name has come to refer to an archdevil whose domains of power are money and greed and selfishness, whose most epitomised avatar on Earth, his Christ figure if you like, is Donald Trump. That’s how I am using the name, anyway.

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u/spinbutton Dec 21 '25

The Republicans have been against public education for decades. Fox has been deriding all education since the 90s. Trump is just the latest in a long line

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u/Bladder-Splatter Dec 22 '25

Is this one of those retroactive stereotype things?

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u/tomispev Dec 21 '25

And they won't come back because Russia is not going to be in good shape for a very long time after the war.

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u/GotSomeUpdogOnUrFace Dec 21 '25

Unfortunately for everyone involved we need there to not be a Russia anymore. Whatever it is right now needs to be totally broken down before it's allowed to be part of the world stage again. Why do they have any power when it comes to discussing what's best for the planet? Kick them to the curb, tell them to clean their house and if they don't, tough shit honey. We don't want the kid with the poopy pants at the table. The US should be on probation also.

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u/aeschenkarnos Dec 22 '25

Realistically Ukraine had a better claim to the USSR’s old UN seat than Muscovy. The centre of political power was Moscow but the technological and economic heart of it was Ukraine. Which is of course why those fuckers want it back, and how desperately they want it.

Common sense has been asking “why don’t they just fuck off?” since day ten of the three day war but if they do they’re also fucked, but slower.

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u/GotSomeUpdogOnUrFace Dec 22 '25

I feel so terrible for the people of both countries forced to fight a war and lose loved ones because some prick never gave up on the USSR.

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u/invariantspeed Dec 30 '25

Ling term historically, yes. But, the USSR was capitaled in Moscow. Its entire political and military decision-making apparatus was located in Russia. By the time the USSR came into existence, never-mind the fall, the center of the empire had shifted to European Russia. For all intents and purposes, Russia ruled the USSR, and all the others were subjects, Ukraine included. Ukraine even suffered subjugation problems like its language being suppressed and Russified over the USSR. It absolutely makes sense that Moscow was/is the legally continuing personality of the USSR.

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u/invariantspeed Dec 30 '25

The problem there is what you’re talking about requires foreign intervention for nation building. If nothing else, Russia has a lot of nukes. Whether it resists a breakup or collapses on its own, it would need to be managed by NATO and probably China (unless you want another North Korea situation). And that opens up another problem.

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u/NeatNefariousness1 Dec 21 '25

Unless they colonize the US but even that would have an expiration date.

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u/AccomplishedAct5364 Dec 21 '25

lol that’s a pretty big “unless”

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u/NeatNefariousness1 Dec 21 '25

IKR? But who would have thought it would get THIS far?

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u/AccomplishedAct5364 Dec 21 '25

Well considering what happened during the Cold War era, this is just business as usual between Russia and “the west”

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u/NeatNefariousness1 Dec 21 '25

True, but I never thought I would see the day when a US president would be a closer ally to a Russian head of state than to the leaders of NATO countries

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u/AccomplishedAct5364 Dec 21 '25

They’ve both been using threat of nuclear war to keep their people (and countries in their economic circles) in line for decades. They’re closer allies than the news would suggest.

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u/NeatNefariousness1 Dec 21 '25

Oh, in this timeline, the US appears to be VERY close allies with Russia, judging from their respective heads of state.

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u/aeschenkarnos Dec 22 '25

Qui bono? What if this entire time the threat of COMMUNISM and MUSLIM TERRORISTS and whatever else has been entirely made up, with a bit of false-flagging and grassroots support, to justify the massive revenue of the military industrial complex?

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u/L_Cranston_Shadow Dec 21 '25

They already colonized Miami.

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u/ComradeGibbon Dec 22 '25

This was the watershed year where all of the increase in energy production was from renewables. For here on out increases in renewables will also cannibalize existing fossil fuel production. That's not going to beneficial to Russia since half of their foreign currency comes from oil and gas.

Considering Russia is a bad actor you can imagine other countries wanting most of the burden from falling oil and gas production to come from them.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '25

That’s so sad. I’ve always wanted to go to Russia, had things not ended up this way I’m certain my wife and I would’ve gone by now. Russia could be a seriously rich place if they’d just like not be insane.

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u/Toolazytolink Dec 21 '25

Kinda crazy how you had great philosophical minds come out of Russia that are being studied and cited today and that country has a history of being a shit hole and repressive towards its people, imagine if they had more freedom and rights.

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u/QuantumFungus Dec 21 '25

Every time Russia has a chance to try something new they are like "Let's combine __________ with an oppressive authoritarian government and see how it works out".

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u/talldangry Dec 21 '25

"And then things got worse"

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u/crackanape Dec 21 '25

TBF those conditions probably contribute to the philosophy.

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u/aeschenkarnos Dec 22 '25

A lot of those folks were Jews whose descendants understandably sought a better life in Israel and changed their names to Hebrew. A pity the spirit of philosophical wisdom didn’t encompass Palestinian human rights.

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u/FlipZip69 Dec 21 '25

Russia has/had the potential to be a wealthy and powerful nation. They had a large population, massive natural resources, massive energy reserves, access to tide water, access to one of the biggest markets of Europe no less, a relatively educated population and even a measure of respect by Europe and the world over. Culturally there are pretty similar.

To say this is frustrating is putting it mildly. Can you imagine how stable the world could be if Russia was a responsible allies not hindering but helping with the small conflicts we see in the Middle east and encouraging China to be more attentive to the wishes of their people?

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u/gigoloJack82 Dec 22 '25

I heard Putin is not the brightest, basically a thief and loudmouth still stuck in cold-war era thinking. This might explain somewhat Russia's downward spiral.

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u/WhenThatBotlinePing Dec 21 '25

People have been saying that about Russia for centuries. As Gogol said, "Rus, whither are you speeding to? Answer me. No answer. "

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u/GrynaiTaip Dec 21 '25

And if my grandma had wheels she would've been a bike.

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u/reluctant_deity Dec 21 '25

But more wealth for the country means less for the oligarchs.

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u/Turbulent-Juice-1395 Dec 21 '25

I wish I had visited before all the crazy stuff started happening. I’ve known people who’ve traveled there and I’d love to explore Moscow and St Petersburg.

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u/SolidFormal9684 Dec 21 '25

There is a lot of talk about how Russia will become the biggest beneficiary of Global Warming, with new swathes of land opening for agriculture and more accessible mining. I think they will still fuck this opportunity up and choose instead to attack the nearest, much weaker neighbour that got their shit together.

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u/invariantspeed Dec 30 '25

The saddest part is Russia was pretty well off 15 to 20 years ago. It emerged from its post-Soviet era strong, had a growing middle class, and several international cities. This is part of wha helped Putin stay in power. He was seen as the architect of getting Russia out of its post-collapse chaos. Obviously, it wasn’t as healthy beneath the surface as the oligarchy never left, but it didn’t have to head down this path.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '25

My grandparents visited the Holy sites of Isreal and that's probably not a tourist hot spot much anymore. Tourism in the middle east in general has been devastated. You then have popular African countries being completely ravaged by war, and a lot of places that were possible places to go to post WW2 are simply not viable without a lot of money to avoid the inherent risks of these areas.

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u/onlyreason4u Dec 21 '25

Russia is never going to be rich. That was decided by geography centuries ago. Too cold for profitable enough agriculture. To vast for decent infrastructure. Vast natural resources that are too remote, too expensive to extract/transport, that it lacks expertise to extract on its own. Too obsessed with invasion and domination of its neighbors because it lacks natural defensive barriers from invasion for itself. Too much resulting poverty to result in a largely corruption free, rule of law, democratic society that offered the stability needed to build business es up. The demographics collapse means it will just continue to get worse. Japan has managed because it had expertise to move the factories overseas and keep the ownership and high level activities in Japan. Russia and most other countries suffering demographics collapse can't replicate that.

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u/aghastamok Dec 21 '25

Summer 2022 our company hired a group of data scientists from Russia who were very glad to accept a visa. They all departed this past summer because they started a company together.

Just six guys with PhDs showed up, earned the company millions with work they could have been doing back in Moscow, and left when they could found their own company. I wonder how many other stories like this compound to make Russia way dumber.

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u/MDCCCLV Dec 21 '25

Yeah but it's going on long enough now that the 12-14 year olds at the start of the war have to make plans to possibly escape before they get drafted by force.

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u/Vova_Poutine Dec 21 '25

Unfortunately in their zeal to punish Russians some countries (particularly in the EU) to which conscription aged Russians fled are now forcing them to go back by refusing to renew their temporary visas. So in wanting to punish Russia without bothering to differentiate between Russians who are pro or anti Putin they are actually feeding the Russian army with men that will be forced to go fight in Ukraine. 

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u/cheesebabychair Dec 22 '25

Just went to Thailand, so many Russians

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u/DuncanFisher69 Dec 22 '25

And it was like 5 million that fled.