President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Ms Lvova-Belova, good afternoon.
Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova: Mr President, congratulations on Children’s Day.
Vladimir Putin: And to you.
Maria Lvova-Belova: It has been an important, challenging and interesting year.
I want to share some good news with you. This year, decision-makers have realised that children whose parents are alive should not live in children’s homes, nor should they become social orphans. The figures confirm this. Mr President, our statistics for 2025 are remarkable. We have been working for five years, as per your instruction, and it appears that the cumulative effect led to excellent results in 2025.
In 2025, some 22,000 social orphans were reported, which is almost 17 percent lower than in 2024. The number of children whose parents have restricted parental rights is16,400, which is 25.5 percent lower than the previous year.
Mr President, we have also collected our own statistics to understand the actual number of children living in children’s homes and shelters. In just under two years, thanks to family support measures, we have managed to reduce this number by 18.3 percent, from 60,000 to 49,000. The current number stands at 49,000.
At the same time, we have worked with governors and regional officials to consistently repurpose these children’s homes and shelters into family support centres, with the aim of keeping families can stay together.
It is very important to note that we have reduced the number of institutional places by 19 percent and reallocated resources to help families. This measure prevents children’s homes from unnecessarily admitting children to fill spare beds.
Mr President, I will give you one example. In Severodvinsk, the director of a local children’s shelter was inspired by these reforms. He analysed the number of required beds and cut down the number of children to just one group, while redistributing the resources to a centre for adolescents, a crisis centre for mothers with children, and a mobile family support crew. This approach enabled twice as many families and children to receive help without any additional resources.
On your instructions, Mr President, coordination at the federal level is being carried out by the interdepartmental working group on assistance to families with children. The group brings together all the key agencies involved in this area, and together we are developing the core policy documents.
As one example, a roadmap has recently been sent to the regions. It has been signed by the three relevant ministers – the Minister of Education, the Minister of Labour and Social Protection and the Minister of Health – as well as by me in my capacity as Presidential Commissioner. The document sets out a clear, coordinated plan outlining the targets, objectives and measures that each region is expected to implement. As a result, regional authorities now have a practical framework to guide their work.
To ensure continuous support for the regions throughout this process, we have been operating in a situation centre format, monitoring the implementation of reforms and key performance indicators around the clock. We have also reviewed complex cases where regions were uncertain how to respond, and took part in court proceedings where necessary.
All of this has helped us achieve the results we are seeing today. If, for example, we notice an increase in the number of people being deprived of parental rights in a particular region, a rise in the number of children abandoned at maternity hospitals, or a growing number of foster families returning children to residential care, we step in at the federal level.
We have prepared a new ranking for you, Mr President, assessing the performance of Russia's regions in addressing social orphanhood. As expected, regions of the North Caucasus are once again well represented among the top ten, but other regions are also performing strongly, including Sevastopol, the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area, the Krasnodar Territory and the Republic of Kalmykia.
In addition to the top ten, however, I would like to single out a number of breakthrough regions that have significantly improved their performance and moved up the rankings over the past year. These include the Nizhny Novgorod Region…
Vladimir Putin: This is a ranking that reflects a reduction in the number of children in these institutions, correct?
Maria Lvova-Belova: Yes, it reflects a reduction in the number of children in residential care institutions and in social orphanhood overall. It also assesses how assistance is provided to families and how many children remain in institutional care. It is important for us to avoid large residential institutions, where it is often difficult to provide comprehensive support not only to the child, but also to the family.
Vladimir Putin: So which regions would you describe as the breakthrough performers?
Maria Lvova-Belova: They are the Nizhny Novgorod Region, the Tambov Region, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area, the Irkutsk, Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk regions, the Republic of Buryatia, and the Tver and Tula regions. Our colleagues there have done an enormous amount of work, and we are very grateful to them for it.
Let me briefly explain how these changes are being achieved in the regions. First, a single official is appointed to take overall responsibility for the issue – for example, a deputy governor responsible for social policy who oversees all aspects of the work. Regions are also introducing comprehensive support programmes for parents struggling with addiction, as we know this is one of the leading causes of social orphanhood. In addition, efforts are being made to help parents have their parental rights restored where appropriate.
An inter-agency board has been established to determine whether it is justified to place children in an institution. There are regional, municipal boards and even boards at the institutional level. Their responsibility is to determine what can be done to help a family so that a child does not end up in a children’s home and can return to the family. It is important that the board looks beyond standard measures and takes an individual approach.
Here is an example, Mr President: I visited a region to sit on an inter-agency board, which I do regularly to observe how it works. The case in question involved a mother and a father who are alcoholics. They love their children and visit them in a shelter all the time but they refuse treatment. The board started to investigate why. It turned out that treatment required six months in a rehabilitation centre and they were afraid of losing their relationship with the children. Also, they had a big household that nobody else could take care of.
To deal with the first problem, we sent them to another region, the Tyumen Region, where there is a substance abuse rehabilitation centre with shared living. Children and parents can stay together. The municipal officials provided volunteers who could help this family with their household during their treatment. Eight months later, the family returned home and they are doing well now.
Mr President, it has been a remarkable year: a historically high number of parents have been reinstated in their parental rights, with 2,844 children back home.
Mr President, during our last meeting, you pointed out that after a child has returned home, the family must receive further support and must not be left alone. We have dedicated this year to analysing, along with regional commissioners, all reintegration cases and the assistance these families receive at the regional level. We have even drafted respective regulations.
We took proactive measures. We did not want to wait for families to come to us. In every region, regional commissioners and child protection services invited parents deprived of parental rights or analysed cases of families deprived of parental rights. Mr President, surprisingly, the situation in many families has significantly changed for the better. Life is complicated. Everything changes constantly. Mothers admitted that they felt the stigma. I spoke to one mother who said, “You see, I have been living with a feeling that I am a bad mother and that nobody will ever believe me. I was cut off like a pariah.” We can overturn this stereotype.
Mr President, I know that you always say that children are more precious than money but I want to point out the economic aspect. By reinstating this number of parents in their rights, the budgets at different levels have freed up 20 billion rubles. This money will be redistributed to help families. As a result, this ongoing reform that turns the state towards families – even families that are seriously challenged, this reform is redistributing and rebuilding everything inside.
Vladimir Putin: Earlier today, we presented state awards to parents of large families. Did you notice that one of the recipients recalled something his mother once told him: “May there be more of us”? That is a wonderful sentiment. But the state’s task is to build a support system that enables families with many children – and indeed families of all sizes – to be happy and secure. The federal and regional support measures we provide must be targeted and effective.
I see that you have included figures here showing the amount of funding being allocated and the results being achieved. How would you assess the effectiveness of these support measures?
Maria Lvova-Belova: Mr President, there is no doubt that state support measures are highly effective. However, what I see in my work is that people’s problems often cannot be solved by state measures alone, whether at the regional or federal level.
Let me give you an example from real life. A man lost his wife during childbirth and was left alone with a newborn baby and an older child. He placed the baby in a children’s home because, as he explained, he had no one to help him. “Either I stay at home with the child, or I earn a living to support my family,” he said. His plan was for the baby to remain in care for about eighteen months and then bring the child home.
We arranged additional funding for a nanny – 30,000 rubles per month. As a result, the child was able to stay with the father. The child has now reached an age at which he can attend nursery. But this type of assistance is not covered by existing regional support programmes.
That is precisely why, Mr President, the Children’s Protection Fund is being established under your executive order, and why you have asked me to lead it. The Children’s Protection Fund is intended to serve as a kind of family reserve fund. Regional branches are now being opened, and they will have resources available to provide targeted assistance beyond existing federal and regional support measures: helping families rent accommodation, pay for medical treatment, carry out minor repairs, fix a stove, and address other urgent needs that are vital to a family’s wellbeing and stability. Once these immediate challenges are resolved, families are often able to manage independently. This is one aspect of the problem.
At the same time, the expertise we have developed in supporting and assisting families will form the basis of a nationwide Family Support Service, which will operate under the Fund and help regional authorities improve their work in this area.
Finally, Mr President, with the agreement of ten governors, we will begin directly overseeing a number of children’s institutions. Together, we will transform them into model facilities that focus not on residential care, but on supporting families and helping children remain in a family environment. We intend to use these institutions as examples of best practice and gradually extend this approach across the country.
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