Mikhail Mishustin: “Today’s youth represents the future of our nation. It’s essential to create opportunities that allow them to explore their talents, pursue their ambitions, and ultimately achieve success.”
Mikhail Mishustin chairs strategic session on the Youth and Children and Family national projects
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Good afternoon, colleagues,
The President, in a recently updated May Executive Order, has outlined national objectives. Among them are preserving the population, enhancing health and well-being, supporting families, and unlocking the potential and talents of every individual. Today, we will review the progress of two national projects aimed at addressing these challenges.
The first project is the comprehensive Family initiative, encompassing five federal projects. These efforts aim to bolster support for families having children and throughout their children’s upbringing, establishing a unified support system as mandated by the President, with particular focus on large families.
The maternity capital programme will continue, and existing social measures will remain unchanged. Starting in 2026, working mothers and fathers with two or more children will receive an annual family payment.
Efforts will also focus on enabling young parents to balance their professional or academic pursuits with childcare responsibilities. To support this, initiatives include the establishment of mother and child rooms and short-stay groups for preschool children within universities.
Furthermore, ensuring access to kindergarten placements should be prioritised. Construction will continue, particularly in those areas experiencing shortage of places in kindergartens, resulting in approximately a hundred new kindergartens within six years. Additionally, renovations are essential for around 2,500 existing facilities nationwide.
To enhance family leisure and foster creative development in localities, cultural institutions will also undergo renovations under the national project.
Additionally, we remain committed to assisting families in addressing housing challenges and overcoming financial hardships.
Another critical area of focus is enhancing access to healthcare services for citizens. The quality of life and demographic indicators significantly hinge on the state of healthcare. Consequently, these issues are consistently prioritised by the Government.
Under the President’s instruction, we will continue to modernise facilities that cater to mothers and children, including expanding the network of prenatal clinics and integrating cutting-edge approaches into their operations. We will facilitate on-site service delivery and implement home visits for new mothers requiring postpartum support.
It is crucial to recognise that families encompass more than just parents and children; they also include our grandparents. Older citizens often face challenges in self-care, and therefore, as directed by the head of state, we will develop a long-term care system. By the end of the decade, this system aims to benefit half a million individuals, offering comprehensive social and medical assistance directly in their homes. This includes support in various aspects of daily life.
Furthermore, it’s important to actively engage our elderly population in cultural, recreational, educational activities, and volunteer work. Leading an active and fulfilling life at any age is not only possible but essential. Moreover, older adults possess valuable experience that they can impart to younger generations, serving as mentors and sharing their knowledge.
Supporting citizens who are raising children and caring for both the younger and older generations is a top priority for the Government. Every aspect of this extensive and intricate work must be carefully considered in the preparation of the national project and the federal projects it will encompass.
Today we will discuss another national project: Youth and Children. As the president noted, it must be about the future and for the future of our country.
There are almost 37 million of people aged 14–35 in Russia. This is the age when people are considered youth under our law. This is almost a quarter of all the people living in the country. Together with children aged above three, this number will be closer to 55 million and continue to grow. All of them are the generation of today. It is important to create opportunities for every one of them to discover their potential and develop talents, so that they could achieve success in the spheres of their choosing and be useful for themselves, their families, and their country.
This is what our new national project is aimed at. Its measures will be tailored specifically for each age. People will able to receive assistance from the state throughout their entire life: from the early years and when studying at school, college, or university, and later: at the beginning of a career, when starting their first job, and when starting their own families.
The national project will include nine federal ones that will unite all support measures for children and youth and make it possible to coordinate the activities of various agencies executing the policy in this sphere, together with public institutes and volunteer organisations.
Special focus will be placed on the development of infrastructure for the future generation. At the president’s instruction, construction of educational facilities will continue. We will also update the material and equipment base of pedagogical universities.
On the president’s initiative, a network of 12 advanced, flagship schools will be created in all districts of the Russian Federation within six years. They will apply up-to-date teaching practices.
The main goal is to ensure that children receive knowledge in comfortable conditions and can try their hand in arts, science, and sports. The education system will also be focused on helping discover each schoolchild’s potential.
We will also develop the professional guidance system. It must cover all schoolchildren by the end of the decade.
We will continue building a network of world-class campuses at universities to improve the quality of higher education. There must be at least 40 in the next 12 years, with all the equipment necessary to carry out research and apply cutting-edge educational methods and, of course, with every best opportunity for professional and personal growth.
In order for our country to achieve technological leadership, we will also enhance the training of highly-qualified engineers that will be able to come up with breakthrough solutions, as well as the training of those that will participate in operating these novel solutions. Advanced engineering schools will continue to be created in leading Russian universities.
Colleagues,
The president noted that youth policy remained a strategically important topic. Today’s young people are the future of the country. We must do everything possible for them to discover and use their talents, set goals, and achieve success.
Let us discuss in detail what measures must be included in the new national projects.
