The state should work to save marriages, instead of simplifying their termination, Natalya Moskvitina has said
A young woman looks at the stand of Gosuslugi at an exhibition in Moscow. © Sputnik / Ilya Pitalev
Russians
currently have the option of filing for divorce online. However,
Natalya Moskvitina, the deputy head of the Public Chamber’s Demography
Commission, insists that breaking up should be harder to do.
Since
2022, getting a divorce has been as simple for Russian citizens as
using the government’s state service platform Gosuslugi to do so from
their phones, assuming the couple does not have underage children and
both the man and the woman agree.
Moskvitina contends that the
state should make every effort to support and preserve such families, so
that they may have children.
“When it comes to divorces, it is absolutely wrong to simplify the process and make it a formality. It’s wrong to do it through Gosuslugi,” she told RIA-Novosti on Friday.
Instead, the platform should be used to connect people who are
experiencing problems in their marriage with experts, who can help them
mend their relations and stay together, the demographer suggested.
“If a married couple has a fight, they should be able to go to Gosuslugi and set up a video call with a psychologist, a mediator or a lawyer,” she said, adding that the assistance should be provided to them within a few hours.
Russian lawmaker Vitaly Milonov fully backed Moskvitina’s call, telling the broadcaster 360 that “in times of crisis, one shouldn’t just destroy relationships, but try to find ways to fix them. In many cases, people just need to be provided with help, instead of immediately deciding to divorce.”
According
to the state statistics agency Rosstat, birth rates are expected to
continue to decline in Russia in the coming years. The agency forecasts
that the country’s population will drop from 146 million to 138 million
by 2046.
The number of divorces in families with children in Russia has
decreased 30% over the past two years, Tass reported last November after
reviewing court files. In the first half of 2025, 163,000 couples
applied for termination of their marriage, compared to 204,000 in the
same period in 2023.