The republic of Tatarstan has announced Russia’s first subsidies for young couples who hold traditional wedding ceremonies, regional officials said Wednesday.
Starting this summer, newlyweds can receive between 50,000 rubles ($565) and 100,000 rubles ($1,130) if their ceremony incorporates elements of Tatar culture.
“There’s nothing like this [in Russia],” Sofia Galiyeva-Mustafina, Tatarstan’s first deputy minister for youth affairs, told the Tatar Inform news outlet.
Couples will qualify for subsidies if they wear national costumes, invite folklore ensembles to perform or incorporate “any other national style options,” she said.
Tatarstan, home to Russia’s second-largest ethnic group, has seen its autonomy steadily eroded as the Kremlin has centralized power.
In 2017, the region was forced to abandon mandatory teaching of its second official language, Tatar, in schools. In 2022, Tatarstan became the last region in Russia to lose the title of “president” for its regional executive.
Tatarstan voted to secede from Russia in 1992 but remained within the Russian Federation under a power-sharing treaty with Moscow.