Russia's State Duma passes bill outlawing 'child-free propaganda'

Russia’s lower house of parliament has approved a bill outlawing ‘propaganda’ that discourages people from having children, the latest in a slew of restrictive laws as the Kremlin tightens control over society.

The new legislation, which requires two more readings in the State Duma and the upper house’s vetting before being sent to President Vladimir Putin for final approval, criminalises spreading information that advocates voluntary childlessness and makes it punishable by fines of up to five million roubles (€47,000).

“We have in principle formed a legal field within which we have protected children, families, and our values. And today we are making additions to previously adopted laws that prohibit the propaganda of paedophilia, LGBT, and gender reassignment,” said speaker of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin.

Supporters of the bill contend that public arguments against having children are part of purported Western efforts to weaken Russia by encouraging population decline.

Putin and his top officials in recent years have increasingly called for observing so-called “traditional values.”

As Russia’s population declines, Putin has made statements advocating large families and last year urged women to have as many as eight children.

Since he sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin leader has repeatedly characterised the West as “satanic” and accused it of trying to undermine Russia by exporting liberal ideologies.

“In general, this ideology itself is a well-thought-out anti-demographic information sabotage against our country. An element of professional propaganda, an element, as I have already said, of a hybrid war, which is aimed at reducing and destroying the population,” said Nina Ostanina, the Chair of the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children.

In 2022, Putin signed a law prohibiting the distribution of LGBTQ information to people of all ages, expanding a ban issued in 2013 on disseminating the material to minors.

And last year, the Russian Supreme Court outlawed the so-called ‘international LGBTQ movement’ as extremist.

Some Russians since then have been jailed for short periods or fined for displaying rainbow-themed material.

Last month, Russian lawmakers gave preliminary approval to a bill prohibiting the adoption of Russian children by citizens of countries where gender transitioning is legal.

Mixed reactions

Outside the Kremlin, some Russians welcomed the initial passage of this bill.

“It’s a disease, it’s a pathology. Of course, like any pathology, it is necessary to treat it or at least make sure that it does not infect others,” said Boris Korchevnikov, the director general of the conservative television channel, Spas.

But some women’s rights activists were angry, saying lawmakers were looking for the cause of Russia’s falling birth rate in “the wrong place”.

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“We have been working with women from different social strata for many years and the refusal of childbirth is in the first place caused by material and economic factors,” said Sofia Rusova who is part of a consortium of women’s rights NGOs.