In an acknowledgement of how serious Russia's demographic problems now are, the Russian government has now directed the labor, health and interior ministries, to come up with a long-term plan to at least "stabilize" the population of the Siberian Federal District which has been in demographic decline throughout the Putin years.
According to TASS, these agencies are to work with regional governments to ensure that the population of that enormous region between Europe and Asia does not sink even further (tass.ru/obschestvo/popu25032907 and echofm.online/news/rossijskie-vlasti-hotyat-pereselyat-sootechestvennikov-zhivushhih-za-rubezhom-v-sibir).
The Russian news agency provided few specifics beyond suggesting that Moscow might send returning compatriots there, but the government action comes on the heels of an article by prominent Moscow commentator Sergey Karaganov who suggested that Moscow dispatch veterans of its Ukrainian war to Siberia (moscowtimes.ru/2025/09/09/sovetnik-putina-predlozhil-otpravlyat-veteranov-svo-osvaivat-sibir-a173933).
What is worrisome given the inclusion of the interior ministry in the list of agencies Moscow plans to use in this effort is that it almost certainly will involve some form of coercion unless or until the central government is prepared to spend enormous sums to keep people in Siberia - or allow regional governments there to keep more of the taxes they collect.
Such coercive measures might include requiring university graduates to work for several years in Siberia, force companies to relocate offices there as Moscow has talked about (/windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/08/russian-government-making-plans-to.html), or the propiskasystem to limit the ability of residents to move from one place to another.