Putin suggests providing hot meals for all students in the first through fourth classes.
After a third child, the government pays 450,000 rubles off a family's mortgage. Overall, the subsidy for a family with three children will be more than 1 million rubles.
- By Carl Schreck
As Putin discusses low wages and demographics, Navalny's branch in St. Petersburg needles Putin's longtime confidant -- Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, a lightning rod for opposition allegations of cronyism in the president's circle -- over his tanned face, implying he took a sunny vacation somewhere: "Igor Sechin had a nice holiday."
Putin calls for increasing the maternal capital subsidy by 150,000 rubles and that it should be annually indexed for inflation.
Promises to extend the "maternal capital" program, which is set to expire at the end of this year.
Putin begins discussing a pilot project called "social contract" that provides assistance to low-income families. Says the project has not shown significant results and should be modified and expanded.
Putin notes that increasing family subsidies will entail serious budgetary reforms and urges the government to undertake that work immediately.
- By Mike Eckel
Putin's early emphasis on demographics and population growth comes about a month after Russia's state statistics agency released a sobering new report that documented continuing declines in the country's population.
It also made some sobering projections for the country's population growth stretching out for the next two decades.
One of Putin's first acts of the new year was to increase the amount of money that families with more than two children receive, as a subsidy known as "maternal capital."
Read more about Russia's population problem here.
Putin cites the population's need for changes, something that has been borne out in polls nationwide since 2018. The speech was billed prior to today as having a focus on domestic problems, an apparent bid to address that demand for change at home.
Says that at present subsidies for children end when a child turns three, which creates serious problems for many families. He proposes continuing subsidies until a child is eight years old.