From sunset to content – Newspaper Kommersant No. 14 (7459) of 01/26/2023

On Wednesday, the executive committee of “United Russia” (ER) held a meeting of the commission for the protection of motherhood and childhood, which was attended by party chairman Dmitry Medvedev. Starting with the problems of demography and the disclosure of the “reproductive potential” of student families, the party members also talked about the “content”, which, in their opinion, should contribute to the strengthening of traditional spiritual and moral values ​​in Russia. True, in the end, United Russia discussed not how to produce the right content, but how to limit the wrong one. At the same time, Mr. Medvedev called for a replacement for those authors of Russian TV series who criticize the special military operation.

The party commission for the protection of motherhood, childhood and family support, headed by State Duma Vice Speaker Anna Kuznetsova, has become one of five similar structures that United Russia created under the top five of their list in the 2021 Duma elections. Recall that in addition to Mrs. Kuznetsova, it included Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Denis Protsenko, head physician of the hospital in Kommunarka, and Elena Shmeleva, head of the Talent and Success Foundation. It was assumed that the commissions would “tie” its frontmen to the party in the post-election period as well.

The main topic of the meeting on January 25 was demography.

For simple reproduction of the population, it is necessary that the birth rate be 2.1-2.15, and in Russia it is now 1.42, Anna Kuznetsova complained and announced that achieving the desired indicators is not just a goal, but the “mission” of her commission.

Tamara Rostovskaya, Deputy Director of the Institute for Demographic Research of the Federal Research Sociological Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, gave a separate report and spoke in detail about how “state demographic propaganda of a multigenerational traditional Russian family” should look like. Among other things, the list of measures she enumerated included support for student families, whose “reproductive potential” has not yet been revealed. The sociologist also advocated the development of a strategy for shaping the role of men in the family and society and the creation of a special interdepartmental commission under the President of the Russian Federation for saving people and strengthening the demographic potential of men.

Ms. Rostovskaya also considered it necessary to involve employers in solving demographic problems among her subordinates.

Later, Anna Kuznetsova, just in case, explained that it was about the management of commercial structures supporting young families and organizing their leisure time.

From the topic of demography, members of the commission smoothly moved on to the issue of popularizing traditional values. “The foundation for the work of our working group was Presidential Decree No. 809 on the foundations of state policy for the preservation and strengthening of traditional Russian spiritual and moral values,” said Academician of the Academy of Russian Television Oksana Barkovskaya. According to her, it depends on the work of the commission whether Russian society will be morally sick or healthy in 10-15 years. “Our goal now is to save our children, our teenagers, to raise them in the right society so that they have the right understanding of the country in which they live and the right understanding of traditions,” the TV academician emphasized.

To achieve the task, in her opinion, it is necessary to seriously take up work with “content”. Mrs. Barkovskaya even apologized for the repeated use of this foreign word in her speech, but she did not find suitable synonyms for it.

Among her proposals were the creation of special expert councils under the relevant departments, which will have to approve or impose a ban on the dissemination of this or that information, and the organization of state support for the creators of content that popularizes spiritual and moral values.

These proposals did not leave Dmitry Medvedev indifferent either. “Obviously, it is necessary for our people and small citizens to understand from school what the essence of the history of our country is, what are its traditions, foundations, what our country has developed on, which was a uniting moment,” he said, summing up the meeting. , emphasizing that “patriotic content” should not be boring. The EP chairman also expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that many Russian TV series are adaptations of classic works or remakes of Western products, and their authors often “curse the special military operation with their last words,” while continuing to receive money for their work. “Is it really impossible to find authors who will write a script that is not the worst, or is it a desire to feed someone?” Mr. Medvedev ended the meeting with a rhetorical question.

Andrey Vinokurov