Against the backdrop of a long-standing Russian demographic crisis, where the population is shrinking and aging, Vladimir Putin's solution is to push for the return to what the Kremlin calls "traditional Russian values" - encouraging women to have large families.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has openly warned for years that the country could become an “enfeebled nation ” if it doesn’t reverse its downward population trend. He added in a 2000 address, “Today the demographic situation is one of the most alarming that the country faces.

The Kremlin will soon ban childless families from appearing in films, advertisements and textbooks in order to encourage Russians to have more babies. MPs in the country’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday voted unanimously for a Bill prohibiting “child-free propaganda” after being urged to do their patriotic duty by Vyacheslav Volodin,

Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv with a sophisticated combination of missiles and drones for the first time in 73 days on Wednesday, authorities reported, as the Pentagon said most of the North Korean troops sent to help Moscow’s war effort are fighting to drive Ukraine’s army off Russian soil in the Kursk border region.