A Mary Poppins for everyone? Russian MP proposes free state-provided nannies for families with two or more young children

A member of Russia’s parliamentary opposition has come up with a radical plan to help improve the country’s birth rate: making state-provided childcare available to parents of babies and toddlers free of charge.

Ivan Sukharev, from the nationalist LDPR party, suggests the scheme should be made available to families with at least two children aged three or under. RT’s Russian-language service has seen a copy of the letter he sent to Minister of Education Sergey Kravtsov, a member of the ruling United Russia party. In it, Sukharev notes that, in recent years, the state has implemented a range of measures to support large families. However, for youngsters not yet eligible for kindergarten, parents need more assistance, he maintains, especially when they already have a child and then have twins from a second pregnancy.

"When a husband is working and supporting his family, a colossal burden is then placed on the wife to raise the children, [if] at least two of them are infants or toddlers,” the MP wrote. “In this regard, I ask you to consider whether it’s possible to provide large families raising more than one child with a specialist in childcare [ie, a nanny] until such children reach the age of three years, when they can be given a place in kindergarten.”

Sukharev emphasizes that it’s the government that should foot the bill. The move comes after the chair of the National Parents Committee, Irina Volynets, asked lawmakers to exempt low-income families from pre-school fees.

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