[[File:Putin 2023.jpg|thumbnail|300px|center|Russia's demographic crisis has long been an existential issue to [[Essay: Vladimir Putin is a corrupt kleptocrat and an authoritarian|Vladimir Putin]]. In 2021, he declared “saving the people of Russia is our top national priority".<ref>[https://fortune.com/2022/10/18/russia-population-historic-decline-emigration-war-plunging-birth-rate-form-perfect-storm/ Russia’s population is in a historic decline as emigration, war and a plunging birth rate form a ‘perfect storm’], Fortune magazine, 2022</ref> | [[File:Putin 2023.jpg|thumbnail|300px|center|Russia's demographic crisis has long been an existential issue to [[Essay: Vladimir Putin is a corrupt kleptocrat and an authoritarian|Vladimir Putin]]. In 2021, he declared “saving the people of Russia is our top national priority".<ref>[https://fortune.com/2022/10/18/russia-population-historic-decline-emigration-war-plunging-birth-rate-form-perfect-storm/ Russia’s population is in a historic decline as emigration, war and a plunging birth rate form a ‘perfect storm’], Fortune magazine, 2022</ref> |