The bill to criminalize “child-free propaganda” passes its first reading in the Russian State Duma

The lower house of the Russian parliament has passed a bill banning “propaganda” that discourages people from having children. This is the latest in a series of restrictive laws as the Kremlin tightens control over society.

The new law, which requires two more readings in the State Duma and review by the upper house before being submitted to President Vladimir Putin for final approval, criminalizes the dissemination of information advocating voluntary childlessness and provides for fines of up to five million rubles (€) before 47,000).

“We essentially created a legal field in which we protected children, families and our values. And today we are supplementing the already adopted laws prohibiting the propaganda of pedophilia, LGBT and gender reassignment,” said State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin.

Proponents of the bill claim that the public arguments against childbearing are part of the West’s alleged efforts to weaken Russia by encouraging population decline.

In recent years, Putin and his top officials have increasingly called for adherence to so-called “traditional values.”

As Russia’s population declines, Putin has made statements in favor of large families and last year urged women to have up to eight children.

Since sending troops to Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin chief has repeatedly called the West “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 said, an element of a hybrid war aimed at reducing and destroying the population,” said Nina Ostanina, chairwoman of the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children.

In 2022, Putin signed a law banning the distribution of LGBTQ information to people of all ages, expanding a 2013 ban on distributing the material to minors.

And last year, Russia’s Supreme Court outlawed the so-called “international LGBTQ movement” as extremist.

Some Russians have since been briefly jailed or fined for displaying rainbow-themed material.

Last month, Russian lawmakers gave preliminary approval to a bill that would ban the adoption of Russian children by citizens of countries where gender reassignment surgery is legal.

Mixed reactions

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

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

But some women’s rights activists were upset, 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 classes for many years and the refusal to give birth is primarily due to material and economic factors,” said Sofia Rusova, who is part of a consortium of women’s rights NGOs.