Russian MPs adopted this Thursday at first reading legislation prohibiting the promotion of a child-free lifestyle, against a backdrop of demographic crisis amplified by the conflict in Ukraine, and the Kremlin’s defense of “traditional values”.
“Degradation of social institutions”
The legislation was adopted unanimously, according to a live broadcast of the vote by the lower house of the Russian Parliament. The bill must now be adopted on second and third readings. He proposes banning the “propaganda” of the “childfree” movement, which brings together people who choose not to have children, for personal, economic or environmental reasons.
“A strong family has been proclaimed as a traditional value”
“A strong family has been proclaimed as a traditional value” in Russia in 2022, underline, in an explanatory note, the authors of the text, including the president of the Federation Council (upper house), Valentina Matvienko and the president of the Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin. “One of the threats to traditional values is the promotion in Russian society of the childless ideology which results in a degradation of social institutions (…) and creates circumstances for depopulation,” they say.
“Propaganda”
According to them, several communities and groups on the internet promote this lifestyle and have an aggressive attitude towards “those who realize their need to be a mother or father.” Hence the need to “create a mechanism for defending traditional values”, explain the authors, who propose prohibiting the promotion of childlessness on the Internet, in the media, in films and in advertisements.
According to Volodine, who presented this initiative for the first time at the end of September, a natural person would risk a fine of 400,000 rubles (around 4,000 euros), civil servants double that, while for legal entities the sanction could be imposed at five million rubles (47,000 euros). “There should be no propaganda putting pressure on women when they decide to have a child. This is what is happening in the United States and Europe,” Volodin assured on Telegram after the vote.
Putin’s hobby horse
The defense of so-called “traditional” values is a hobby horse of President Vladimir Putin, who constantly denounces Western “decadence”. Russia is therefore repressing the rights of LGBT+ communities.
Since his arrival at the Kremlin in 2000, Mr. Putin has made it a priority to stem the Russian demographic crisis, inherited from the Soviet era, but has never succeeded. The pronatalist measures did not have the expected effects, with the Kremlin recognizing in July a situation that was “catastrophic for the future of the nation”. The losses on the front in Ukraine since 2022 have only accentuated this trend.
