{"id":915402,"date":"2026-04-24T13:02:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T13:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/915402\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T13:02:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T13:02:30","slug":"teens-making-drones-russias-demographic-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/915402\/","title":{"rendered":"Teens making drones: Russia\u2019s demographic collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"article-header__tag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.codastory.com\/armed-conflict\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Armed Conflict<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Despite the Kremlin\u2019s focus on raising birth rates, a combination of war and failed policy means the country\u2019s  steep population decline now seems terminal.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"article-header__credits credits\">\n<li>By \t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.codastory.com\/author\/masholomashvili\/\" title=\"Posts by Masho Lomashvili\" class=\"author url fn\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Masho Lomashvili<\/a>\t<\/li>\n<li class=\"article-header__date\">24 April 2026<\/li>\n<li class=\"article-type\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.codastory.com\/tag\/russia-ukraine-war\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> explainer<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>My name is Darina,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9rWQRTST8mk&amp;t=4s\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">says<\/a> an elfin teen, ponytail pulled through the back of her cap, and \u201cnext year I\u2019ll be earning 150,000 rubles (nearly $2,000) a month.\u201d Darina works at what she calls \u201cthe world\u2019s largest drone factory,\u201d helping to assemble versions of the Iranian Shahed drone. \u201cMy parents are proud of me. Wanna do the same?\u201d She asks as she advertises a polytechnic in Tatarstan. The Russian government, in the face of war and looming demographic disaster, has been <a href=\"https:\/\/er.ru\/activity\/news\/edinaya-rossiya-vnesla-v-gosdumu-zakonoproekt-ob-uproshenii-trudoustrojstva-nesovershennoletnih\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">relaxing<\/a> child labor laws since 2022, making it easier to put 14-year-olds to work. Now, legislators are open about the need to <a href=\"https:\/\/tass.ru\/obschestvo\/26555725\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reform<\/a> \u201coutdated\u201d restrictions on employing minors in industries that were \u201cconsidered dangerous 20 years ago.\u201d Drone production is not the only part of the war effort to which teenagers are being recruited. This month in a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kyivpost.com\/post\/74115?utm_source=ig&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_content=link_in_bio&amp;fbclid=PAZnRzaARO0DBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAadTplIc_sggLBHueg2yUS2E6pN_lMHXbJsoCCrZa39Jv41pe3V6xYSc2EMwmA_aem_TxySqw4vqef40xkA-x1pjg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">content camp<\/a>\u201d in Moscow, soldiers and state media propagandists trained 120-plus teens on how to make videos, use AI, and grow their audiences as aspiring influencers. Vladislav Golovin, a former soldier and a leader of Russia\u2019s Young Army Cadets National Movement, said the program had \u201ccreated a huge team of kids who understand how to broadcast government values.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But many young people, <a href=\"https:\/\/meduza.io\/en\/feature\/2026\/04\/07\/russia-has-shifted-to-a-year-round-conscription-system-here-s-what-that-means-for-the-country-s-young-men\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">subject<\/a> to year-round conscription, subject to internet shut downs and subject to surveillance, have little desire to spread propaganda. Instead, <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/svobodnieslova\/8589#\" rel=\"nofollow\">according<\/a> to Google Trends data, growing numbers of Russians are seeking information on how to emigrate. A new exodus would accelerate Russia\u2019s deep demographic crisis. Already, up to a million people are thought to have <a href=\"https:\/\/fsi.stanford.edu\/publication\/russian-emigration-patterns-during-russia-ukraine-war-interviews-wartime-emigres?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">left<\/a> Russia since the full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. According to one recent <a href=\"https:\/\/en.zona.media\/article\/2026\/04\/10\/casualties_eng-trl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">count<\/a>, nearly 210,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the war with Ukraine, with other estimates <a href=\"https:\/\/www.csis.org\/analysis\/russias-grinding-war-ukraine\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">suggesting<\/a> over 1.2 million casualties, including 325,000 deaths. And Russian fertility rates are the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themoscowtimes.com\/2025\/04\/14\/russias-birth-rate-plunges-to-200-year-low-a88709\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">lowest<\/a> they have been for 200 years. Anton Kotyakov, the labor minister, has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/russia-economy-population-demographic-crisis-labor-shortage-birth-rate-2030-2025-7\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told<\/a> Vladimir Putin that the country faces a labor shortage of 11 million people by 2030.<\/p>\n<p>So concerning is this crisis that Rosstat, the national statistics agency, has stopped publishing monthly demographic data. State officials and local governors have been told to compete to come up with the most innovative solutions to a seemingly intractable problem. The pressure on Russian officials and the Kremlin is leading to desperate measures, including <a href=\"https:\/\/tass.ru\/obschestvo\/26802539\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">guidance<\/a> from the Russian health ministry that women who say they do not want to have children should be referred to a psychologist. Nothing the Russian state has tried has worked, from financial incentives (<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/russia-is-paying-schoolgirls-to-have-babies-why-is-pronatalism-on-the-rise-around-the-world-258979#:~:text=Russia&#039;s%20parliament%20passed%20a%20law%20in%202024,the%20promotion%20of%20childlessness%2C%20or%20%E2%80%9Cchild%2Dfree%20propaganda%E2%80%9D.\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">extended<\/a> even to schoolgirls under 18) to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/europe\/russia-bans-child-free-propaganda-try-boost-birth-rate-2024-11-12\/#:~:text=Russia%20bans%20&#039;child%2Dfree%20propaganda&#039;%20to%20try%20to,number%20of%20deaths%20jumped%20by%2049%2C000.%20Howeve\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">banning<\/a> advertising that supposedly promotes \u201cchild-free\u201d lifestyles and so-called \u201cLGBTQ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-04-21\/russia-detains-head-of-top-publisher-in-crackdown-on-lgbtq-books\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">propaganda<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1642\" height=\"1200\" data-id=\"63609\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-63609 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/rg3-1642x1200.jpg\"  data- data-eio-rwidth=\"1642\" data-eio-rheight=\"1200\"\/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1000\" data-id=\"63610\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-63610 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/drones-1800x1000.jpg\"  data- data-eio-rwidth=\"1800\" data-eio-rheight=\"1000\"\/><br \/>\nDarina, 16, assembles Shahed-style drones at a factory in Alabuga, Tatarstan, Russia. Screenshots from YouTube video by T-invariant.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside \u201canti-woke\u201d policies disguised as family values, is rising xenophobia and anti-immigrant rhetoric that has led to a marked <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themoscowtimes.com\/2026\/01\/29\/migrant-crackdown-leads-to-10-drop-in-foreigners-residing-in-russia-a91812\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">decline<\/a> in the number of foreigners living in Russia. The Kremlin\u2019s anti-migrant policies include a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rferl.org\/a\/surveillance-migrant-workers-moscow-central-asia-visa\/33433055.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">new system<\/a> to monitor migrant workers through biometric registration, location tracking, and intensified police oversight. The Russian parliament is currently debating enhancing the number of offences that can be punished by deportation or substantially increased fines. Much of it is targeted at Russia\u2019s Central Asian migrants who make up an overwhelming majority of immigrant labor. Some Central Asian governments, notably Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, have now <a href=\"https:\/\/eurasianet.org\/tajikistan-and-kyrgyzstan-caution-citizens-to-steer-clear-of-russia\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">urged<\/a> their citizens to think twice about going to Russia for work.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Russia has been <a href=\"http:\/\/russianresidency.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">publicizing<\/a> political stunts such as its \u201cshared values visa\u201d in which applicants from 46, largely developed, nations are given temporary residence permits if they profess to support \u201ctraditional Russian values.\u201d The visa, the Kremlin has said, is \u201cRussia\u2019s response to what it perceives as the harmful effects of Western neoliberal policies.\u201d But only a tiny fraction of the immigrants Russia needs will be Westerners who apply for such a visa; instead, Russia has been diversifying its pool of migrant workers by looking further east. Around 72,000 work permits were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/world-at-work\/russia-facing-labour-crunch-worsened-by-war-pivots-india-workers-2026-02-11\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">issued<\/a> to Indian nationals in 2025, up from just 5,000 in 2021. Russian officials have signaled they are ready to accept \u201cunlimited\u201d numbers of workers from South Asian countries like India, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar.<\/p>\n<p>While the Kremlin is looking to South Asia and Africa to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/2\/25\/ukraine-claims-russia-enlisting-over-1700-african-mercenaries\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">address<\/a> its immediate need for workers (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/2\/25\/ukraine-claims-russia-enlisting-over-1700-african-mercenaries\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">and soldiers<\/a>), the ambition in the longer term is to boost Russian birthr rates, despite the signal failure of ongoing attempts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the U.S., there have been several moves borrowed from the Kremlin\u2019s playbook, including the restriction of abortion, the attempt to deny women birth control, and even alarm at the fall in teen pregnancies. But data <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/data\/vsrr\/vsrr043.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">released<\/a> this month showed that women in the U.S. gave birth to 710,000 fewer babies in 2025 than they did in 2007, a reflection of two decades of steadily dropping birth rates. Russian demographer Salavat Abylkalikov, at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies in Germany, says \u201cif the birth rate has fallen below the level of simple reproduction, it is almost impossible to raise it back.\u201d Especially when financial incentives cover just a fraction of childcare costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In any case, Abylkalikov says, \u201cin Russia, death is much more profitable than birth: in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, the government provides around 1,000,000 rubles (about $12,000) for each child, but if one person goes to war and dies, the family receives up to 12 million rubles in total. That\u2019s more than $120,000. This is the economy of death.\u201d The evidence, from countries like Russia, Hungary and the U.S., is that appeals to tradition, to religion and to female \u201cresponsibility\u201d do not work, when support for families is limited. And while migration is an obvious fix to demographic questions everywhere, it\u2019s politically toxic.<\/p>\n<p>Russia knows it is hurtling towards demographic doom but can do little to halt the momentum. Its policies are riddled with inconsistencies \u2014 a strong line in anti-migration rhetoric and bullying, while being forced to import workers and soldiers from Asia and Africa; a patriarchal view of women\u2019s roles, mostly confined to the domestic, while increasingly reliant on women to take the jobs of the men who are fighting and dying in Putin\u2019s war; and encouraging more women to give birth, while employing children to build drones. With family values like these, no wonder young Russians are hesitant to procreate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Armed Conflict Despite the Kremlin\u2019s focus on raising birth rates, a combination of war and failed policy means&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":915403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7655],"tags":[13641,6657,35006,26055,332,7661],"class_list":["post-915402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-russia","tag-explainer","tag-migration","tag-propaganda","tag-reproductive-rights","tag-russia","tag-russia-ukraine-war"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116459821438989151","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}