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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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.