Press Release, 19.03.2026

Photo by Konstantin Kokoshkin, Kommersant

Artur Gaiduk, a Yabloko deputy in the Pskov Regional Assembly and a medical doctor, has written to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin proposing improvements to the quality of assisted reproductive technology services within the compulsory medical insurance (CMI) system.

In addition, Gaiduk has submitted draft legislation — both federal and regional — to the regional parliament proposing that maternity capital be permitted for use towards in vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedures and embryo storage.

The programme aims to make IVF accessible to a greater number of people and to improve its effectiveness by including within the CMI system additional screening for prospective parents and genetic testing of embryos.

In broad terms, the Pskov Yabloko demographic programme proposes, among other things, to expand the criteria under which CMI currently covers IVF, to add an extensive range of tests for prospective parents to the compulsory insurance system, and, most importantly, help those who currently lack the means to access funding for reproductive medicine.

In other words, the programme would give those who genuinely wish to have children the opportunity to do so, while relieving the state of the need to pressure everyone, including schoolchildren and students, into parenthood.