Russia’s top health official has suggested a “sex-at-work” scheme to address the country’s declining birth rate, a move that supports President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to counter a growing population crisis.

Despite financial incentives, tax breaks, a nationwide campaign to discourage abortions, and Putin’s years-long attempts to encourage procreation across the country, Russia experienced its lowest birth rate in 25 years during the first half of 2024, according to reports following UN findings on global population trends.

At the Eurasian Women’s Forum on Wednesday, Putin emphasized the importance of women’s role in the workplace while reiterating his push for higher birth rates.

“Appropriate conditions are being created for women to succeed professionally while remaining guardians of the hearth and cornerstones of large families with many children,” he stated, according to .

The reportedly said that women can manage the demands of both a career and motherhood because they “possess a secret that men are unable to fathom.”

When pressed by a female reporter on how women are supposed to find the time for family life, Russia’s Health Minister Dr. Yevgeny Shestopalov dismissed the concern as an “excuse.”

“There are people who work 12 to 14 hours – when do they make babies?” Shestopalov was asked, according to a report by Metro. 

“You can engage in procreation during breaks,” he replied before adding, “Life flies by too quickly.”

Female Russian lawmakers, including politicians Anna Kuznetsova and Zhanna Ryabtseva, joined the push by encouraging women to maximize their childbearing years by starting families once they turn 18. 

One Russian Member of Parliament, Tatyana Butskaya, even encouraged employers to monitor the birth rates of their female staff members, reported Sky News Australia. 

Women in Moscow between the ages of 18 and 40 are also being encouraged to undergo fertility testing.

“This new push for more Russian babies is consistent with the Russian government’s previous initiatives to improve demographics and increase the size of the future workforce,”  former DIA intelligence officer and author of “Putin’s Playbook,” Rebekah Koffler, told Digital. “While the Kremlin portrays Russia’s declining birth rates in Russia as ‘disastrous,’ in reality Russia’s demographics is not much different from those of most industrial countries.”

The UN estimates that Russia’s population, which currently stands at around 140.8 million, will fall by 10 million by 2054.

The United States Census Bureau reports that the number of children per woman in Russia is currently 1.5, though a birth rate of 2.1 is needed to sustain its current population rate, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, as reported by Newsweek.