The Public Chamber is to discuss a new strategy for youth policy on Tuesday, the government must approve this strategy by winter. The document contains information on the two main problems of the contemporary youth - emigrant moods and demographic decline.

The authors propose a series of measures for solving these problems: from changing the position of the warning of smoking dangers on cigarette packs to increasing grant support. The document titled “The Principles of State Youth Policy of the Russian Federation until 2025” has been developed by MSU and an interagency working group since spring. The group includes federal and regional officials, State Duma deputies, heads of universities and public figures.

On Tuesday the Public Chamber will discuss the basic document (which is available to RBC) which will soon be sent to the government by the responsible Federal Agency for Youth Affairs with the inclusion of all modifications to the document. The Cabinet of Ministers will have to approve the document by December 1, in accordance with the request of the President Vladimir Putin. A preliminary version of “The Principles” is referred to by the working group as “a document significantly changing the priorities of the youth policy of the country”.

The draft says that Russia will face two challenges in the near future, which in the worst case can jeopardize the “sovereignty and integrity, global mission as a world center of power” of Russia. We are talking about value and quantitative challenges, as the authors clarify. The developers consider the value challenges to lay in “serious emigration moods among a large part of the Russian youth”, the low level of history knowledge and their non-inclusion in socio-economic processes in all spheres. The quantitative challenge lays in the decrease in the proportion of young people because of the demographic decline of the 1990s.

The number of young people aged 14-30 years is to reach a minimum value - about 25.2 million - by the beginning of 2020s, which is a third less than in 2013, as the document says. These problems can lead to labor shortages, poor socio-economic situation in some regions and problems with the staffing of the armed forces. The solution of the problem will require “maximizing of the human potential of the Russian youth”, as the document notes.

The previous version of the document (also available to RBC) said about the need for a “mobilization development scenario”. According to the authors, the state should judge from the eight priorities, including creating favorable conditions for the realization of human potential (education of patriots, citizens of a legal democratic state), improve the systems education, health and public administration and actively work with young people via the mass media.

The tasks include the preparation of young people for service in the armed forces, the development and placement of social advertising and the fight against alcoholism and smoking. In particular, in order to reduce tobacco consumption it is proposed to place the images about tobacco dangers of the size of at least a half of the pack and on both sides of it (now “anti-smoking” pictures are only placed on one side of the pack). In addition, it is proposed to create a system of grant support for youth projects.