Russian policy and population dynamics in the Putin era

The Russian “demographic crisis” has been a major focal point of Putin’s political rhetoric and domestic policy for nearly two decades. This talk presented research analyzing the tools and their effects – in the political realm and in terms of population – of the Russian government’s attempts to raise the birth rate.

Leslie Root is a postdoctoral researcher for the Colorado Fertility Project at the University of Colorado Boulder. She received her PhD in demography from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2020, and holds an MA in Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies from Georgetown University. Her work focuses on fertility politics and policies in low-fertility countries, including Russia and the United States.