German media outlets Süddeutsche Zeitung, WDR, and NDR also cite the report, noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin appears intent on testing NATO’s Article 5 guarantees. The alliance’s mutual defence clause obliges member states to come to one another’s aid if attacked. The assessment suggests Putin may seek to challenge how seriously that commitment would be honoured.
People who follow this subject have been talking about it as a crisis before the invasion even began. Now it’s being described as “demographic collapse”. They have remarkably low birth rates, an ageing population, xenophobia issues, and few friendly nations from which to borrow workers. I saw one headline that they’ve begun trying to bribe young ladies to have children. I believe I’ve seen Putin on record saying he sees demographics as one of his biggest issues, but his policies belie a more cynical stance. It is likely that Russia will continue to decline throughout the century, and in geopolitical terms they are positioned to eventually become a client state of some sort, likelier than not beholden to China.
Maybe they’ll find a way to rebound. Banning contraception, banning abortions getting rid of women rights plus no other way to survive in old age apart from having many children. Seems like the US is going that way.
I feel that would lead to women escaping the country, suicides or to kill the babies if they are born a girl…