Russia needs migrants in order to develop because of its dwindling domestic workforce, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview published on Friday

“Migrants are a necessity,” he told state news agency RIA Novosti.

“We have a tense demographic situation. We live in the largest country in the world but there aren’t that many of us,” he said.

Earlier this week, Russia’s parliament approved legislation banning “child-free propaganda”, effectively outlawing any person or organisation from encouraging others not to have children.

It was a move designed to help remedy a demographic crisis inherited from the Soviet era and which has worsened since the conflict in Ukraine.

“We need a labour force in order to have dynamic development and carry out all our development projects,” Peskov said.

He said Russian authorities welcomed migration.

Anti-migrant rhetoric is common in Russia, especially towards labourers from ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia who fill key sectors of the economy.

In July, the Kremlin acknowledged the low population was “disastrous for the future of the nation”.

The country’s population has not recovered since Soviet times despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government offering generous payouts and mortgage subsidies to large families.

Recent demographic problems include a low birth rate, large numbers of Covid deaths and hundreds of thousands of men fleeing the country to avoid being mobilised to fight in Ukraine.

In 2023, the fertility rate was 1.41 births per woman of child-bearing age, according to estimates from the national statistics office Rosstat, cited by news outlet RBC.

That is under the 2.0 rate needed to replace the existing population.

Rosstat figures show 920,200 babies were born in Russia between January and September this year, a 3.4 percent drop on the same period last year.

Russian media said that was the lowest number of births since the 1990s. (Vanguard)