RUSSIA'S DEMOGRAPHIC CRISIS GETS DEEPER
For decades, Russia has labored under deeply adverse demographic trends, from high mortality to low birth rates, which have cumulatively placed the country on a track of protracted population decline. Those trends are now deepening, with potentially ruinous consequences. "The fertility rate in Russia has fallen to 1.3 children per woman per lifetime," notes Paul Goble in his Window on Eurasia blog. That figure is far below the "replenishment rate" of 2.1 live births per woman. As a result, Russia's demographic crisis is "becoming ever deeper" and now "threatens to become irreversible." This, Goble explains, is "because even if the government is able to push up the fertility rate slightly, it is unlikely to reach the... level needed for the population to remain stable or prevent the number of potential mothers from declining." (Window on Eurasia, March 7, 2026)
THE KREMLIN EXPANDS ITS DIGITAL CRACKDOWN
The regime of President Vladimir Putin has begun its most intense informational crackdown to date, blocking internet connections and over 400 VPN sites, as well as suppressing messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, and Snapchat. Moscow has also implemented a new law mandating that mobile operators have to remove any citizen from their networks at the request of the Federal Security Service.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has asserted that these new restrictions are a response to a failure on the part of foreign media companies to comply with Russian regulations. But in reality, the ban is the result of at least two other factors. The first is an attempt to limit the efficiency of Ukrainian drones that have, up to now, relied on existing cell networks for navigation. The second is the Kremlin's ongoing need to regulate access to information about the war in Ukraine available to ordinary Russians – something that has become more urgent as the conflict drags on with no end in sight. (Reuters, March 20, 2026)
MOSCOW EYES AFGHAN LABOR
According to Russia's special envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, the Kremlin is now in talks with the Taliban regarding the possibility of recruiting Afghan migrants to work in Russia. The Taliban's ambassador to Russia, Gul Hassan, has stated that Moscow had previously discussed bringing in Afghan workers for Russia's agricultural sector, and the current talks appear to be an extension of those conversations. The Taliban's earlier efforts to send workers overseas to places such as the UAE have been thwarted as a result of legal conditions and procedural hurdles. But in Russia, which has progressively normalized ties to Kabul, Afghanistan's Islamist rulers appear to have found a more receptive audience. (Afghanistan International, March 27, 2026)
THE KREMLIN REWRITES RUSSIAN HISTORY
Meduza has drawn attention to a new official effort to reshape Russian education in order to "foster patriotism." Since 2023, the opposition outlet notes, high school students in Russia have already been taught from one standardized textbook authored by Kremlin confidant Vladimir Medinsky. Beginning this fall, however, the use of the curriculum will expand, with schools adopting the textbook series from the 5th grade onward.
The project is being overseen by presidential administration official Vladislav Kononov. In a recent interview with the Kommersant newspaper, Kononov explained the rationale for the changes. "A single, standardized textbook provides the foundation for a shared civic identity," he notes. "There is no alternative history, just as none of us has — or could have — different parents. You can reflect and ask questions. But if you begin to despise your country’s past, you have no future as its citizen."
The new curriculum includes a number of notable changes, with the textbook offering an "objective, balanced view of history" – including that of "controversial figures like Stalin." The textbook, moreover, pins the blame for the Soviet collapse on the USSR's last leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. Kononov argues that "there's a clear criterion for evaluating a statesman: what he inherited and what he left behind. If Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet empire, and then the empire ceased to exist — draw your own conclusions." (Meduza, March 24, 2026)