Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin did not discuss the idea of abolishing maternity capital for women who gave birth outside of Russia. Therefore, he commented on the controversy surrounding the statement of the State Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov. The parliamentarian proposed to deprive the mother capital of Russian women who gave birth abroad, calling them “chickens” with low social responsibility. After that, several colleagues made similar offers.
Asked whether the Kremlin has a stance on whether it is right to give maternity capital to women who have given birth abroad, Peskov said, “We do not have such a discussion.”
On February 11, Vitaly Milonov, deputy of United Russia, told the Moskva Speaks radio station that refusing social programs for the departed would be an effective measure and would reduce the number of those who want to give birth abroad.
“I think the state is interested in helping Russian mothers, and if she is an Argentine mother, let Argentina take care of it,” Milonov said.
He accused the separated women of wanting to “freely secure dual citizenship”. “Although a woman has the right to give birth wherever she wants, we need to check how some restrictions can be imposed,” the MP said.
Discussion about parent capital
A similar opinion was expressed on February 15 by Alexei Zhuravlev, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee of the Liberal Democratic Party. According to him, Russians who “deliberately reject Russia and even resort to all kinds of tricks for this” should not buy main capital in Russia.
“As planned, maternity capital is needed to normalize the demographic situation in the country, and not at all to finance those who want to escape from it,” Zhuravlev wrote on his Telegram channel.
He called for the elimination of the “legislative loophole” that allowed such women to get paid.
“Maternity tourists should get paid in Buenos Aires or New York, where they’re so eager, but there’s nothing like Russian support measures there,” Zhuravlev said.
State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin urged him to consider whether it is right to provide maternity capital and whether it benefits women who gave birth abroad to obtain a second citizenship. He conducted a poll on his Telegram channel, asking such Russian women if they were “acting right in relation to their country.”
Nearly 86% of more than 240,000 voters answered “No”. About 8% answered “yes” and 6% said “I don’t care”.
Tatyana Butskaya, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children, said in an interview with Moscow that “nothing can be changed by bans.”
“This is a woman’s decision. We have restrictive measures, from a certain date it is impossible to fly by plane, because the birth can begin … I can not say that there is a big leak right now. Tourism was always there, as I remember, when you went you were giving birth somewhere, ”she said.
“Birth Tourism Boom”
The controversy began after six Russian women in late pregnancy were denied entry to Argentina for failing to explain the purpose of the trip. Local authorities believe that the women come for “birth tourism”. After a while they were allowed in.
They came alone for tourism purposes in the 32nd week of pregnancy. When we see that there are no return tickets, it is difficult to deal with tourism in such a situation, they are asked questions and they say that they actually came to give birth, ”said Florencia Carignano, head of Argentine Immigration. Service.
According to him, only on the night of February 9, 33 pregnant Russian women arrived in the country on an Ethiopian Airlines flight. Under Argentine law, a child born on its territory receives local citizenship, and their parents get permanent residency in the country and the opportunity to apply for citizenship.
In early January 2023, The Guardian reported a “boom in maternity tourism” to Argentina among Russian citizens. Georgy Polin, head of the consular office of the Russian Embassy in the country, said that between 2,000 and 2,500 Russians moved to Argentina in 2022. According to the diplomat, most of them are women who are about to give birth. He expressed the opinion that their number may increase to 10 thousand people in 2023.
According to the Argentine Immigration Service, approximately 10.5 thousand pregnant women entered the country from the Russian Federation in 2022. About 7,000 people returned home soon after giving birth and instructed Argentine lawyers to provide citizenship papers for babies and their parents. In this context, from February 11, the Argentine authorities decided to suspend the residence permit of Russians who obtained their residence permit through the birth of a child and did not stay in the country.
In November 2022, Vladimir Putin announced the extension of the maternity capital program until 2026. Minister of Labor and Social Protection Anton Kotyakov said that in 2023 the size of the mother’s capital will be about 590,000 rubles for the first child and about 780,000 rubles for the second child.