Pregnant schoolgirls will qualify for a £1,000 cash payment under a ‘crazy’ scheme drawn up by allies of Vladimir Putin to boost the Russian birth rate.

Girls as young as 16 who are more than 12 weeks pregnant will now qualify for the state payout under a scheme piloted in the Oryol region, which has seen a population slump of almost 8,000 people.

There is no minimum age to receive the payment of 100,000 rubles, equivalent to around £914, under the policy, although the age of consent in Russia is 16.

A TV show previously called Pregnant at 16 – intended to discourage teenage pregnancies – has been rebranded as Mama at 16, aimed at highlighting the ‘beauty of motherhood’. 

But the scheme, signed into law by Putin-loyalist governor Andrey Klychkov, has drawn criticism from Russian parliamentarians and state media. 

Nina Ostanina, head of the Family Committee in the Russian parliament, slammed the attempt to ‘encourage children to become parents at school’.

TV host Oskar Kuchera branded the new one-off payment initiative ‘ridiculous’ and ‘nonsense’.

Demographer Alexey Raksha warned: ‘The counterproductive desire to ‘rejuvenate’ the birth rate in the provinces leads to absurd decisions. We have never seen such idiocy.’ 

There is no minimum age to receive the payment of 100,000 rubles, equivalent to around £914, under the policy

There is no minimum age to receive the payment of 100,000 rubles, equivalent to around £914, under the policy

A TV show previously called Pregnant at 16 - intended to discourage teenage pregnancies - has been rebranded as Mama at 16, aimed at highlighting the 'beauty of motherhood'

A TV show previously called Pregnant at 16 – intended to discourage teenage pregnancies – has been rebranded as Mama at 16, aimed at highlighting the ‘beauty of motherhood’

Nina Ostanina, head of the Family Committee in the Russian parliament, slammed the attempt to 'encourage children to become parents at school'

Nina Ostanina, head of the Family Committee in the Russian parliament, slammed the attempt to ‘encourage children to become parents at school’

Russia’s birth rate has collapsed to a record low this century, with just 599,600 children born in the first six months of 2024.

Over the same period, Russia’s population decline accelerated by 18 per cent, with 49,000 more deaths recorded in 2024 than the year before, likely due to the frontline casualties in the war with Ukraine.

The current Russian birth rate is 1.5 children per woman, far less than the 2.1 needed to sustain a population. 

Klychkov has said that ‘everyone was very interested’ in the legislation and predicted other regions would follow. 

Similar schemes have been passed in nearly a dozen Russian regions, although the recipients must be aged between 18 and 23.

Different areas are offering various levels of compensation – for a firstborn in the city of Chelyabinsk, it can be as high as £8,500.

Efforts to replenish Russia’s declining population have sparked several inventive ideas from both the Kremlin and the Russian State Duma.

In 2023, parliamentarian Valery Seleznyov reportedly proposed releasing women convicted of minor charges from prisons so they can conceive.

Klychkov has said that 'everyone was very interested' in the legislation and predicted other regions would follow

Klychkov has said that ‘everyone was very interested’ in the legislation and predicted other regions would follow

Russia's birth rate has collapsed to a record low this century, with just 599,600 children born in the first six months of 2024

Russia’s birth rate has collapsed to a record low this century, with just 599,600 children born in the first six months of 2024

Russia's birth rate has collapsed to a record low this century, with just 599,600 children born in the first six months of 2024

Russia’s birth rate has collapsed to a record low this century, with just 599,600 children born in the first six months of 2024

Similar schemes have been passed in nearly a dozen Russian regions, although the recipients must be aged between 18 and 23

Similar schemes have been passed in nearly a dozen Russian regions, although the recipients must be aged between 18 and 23

Those who manage to have a child successfully should also have the rest of their sentences cancelled, he said. 

A year earlier, Putin reintroduced the 20th-century Mother Heroine award, which honours women who have 10 or more children with a one-off payment of one million rubles, equivalent to £9,180.

And only last year, the Russian State Duma heard legislation proposing a crackdown on firms and individuals accused of pushing ‘child-free’ propaganda.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the State Duma said that groups and communities on social networks ‘often show disrespect for motherhood and fatherhood’ and that the ‘child-free movement’ devalues the institution of family, which is the ‘basis of a strong state.’

Tatiana Butskaya, an MP for Russia’s ruling party who sits on the parliamentary committee for Family Protection, told Sky News: ‘This [propaganda] is an ideology against life on earth.

‘If [our parents] had adhered to this ideology, none of us would be at this press conference today. Perhaps it would’ve been other people here, and maybe even robots.’

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