Matviyenko called the depopulation of territories a strategic threat to Russia.

      The Chairwoman of the Federation Council, Valentina Matviyenko, spoke at the panel discussion "Creating a Family-Centric Environment in Municipalities: A Women's Perspective on Regional Development" as part of the forum "Small Homeland – The Strength of Russia." She stated that the problem of depopulation of territories poses a strategic threat to the country.

      "Russia is historically not a country of agglomerations and megacities. Depopulation of territories is a strategic threat for us; we cannot allow this – neither from the perspective of national security nor from the perspective of economic development," Matviyenko is quoted by RIA Novosti.

      According to her, it is necessary to achieve even distribution of the population so that people do not crowd into apartments in a few large cities far from their native places, but build spacious homes and raise large families throughout the country. "This, in my opinion, should be the vision of the future," the Speaker of the Federation Council emphasized. She also noted that such trends are already emerging and need to be supported by all levels of government – from municipal to federal.