Against the backdrop of a long-standing Russian demographic crisis, where the population is shrinking and aging, Vladimir Putin's solution is to push for the return to what the Kremlin calls "traditional Russian values" - encouraging women to have large families.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has openly warned for years that the country could become an “enfeebled nation ” if it doesn’t reverse its downward population trend. He added in a 2000 address, “Today the demographic situation is one of the most alarming that the country faces.

The Kremlin will soon ban childless families from appearing in films, advertisements and textbooks in order to encourage Russians to have more babies. MPs in the country’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday voted unanimously for a Bill prohibiting “child-free propaganda” after being urged to do their patriotic duty by Vyacheslav Volodin,

Russia's Deputy head of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev takes part in a wreath laying ceremony marking Defender of the Fatherland Day at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the Kremlin Wall in Moscow,

North Korea troops have begun fighting alongside Russians, a U.S. State Department spokesman said during a briefing on Tuesday. "Over 10,000 DPRK (North Korean) soldiers have been sent to eastern Russia,