A child rides on a carousel in front of St. Basil’s Cathedral on Moscow’s Red Square, 21 February 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE / YURI KOCHETKOV
The speaker of Russia’s State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, announced that legislation banning “child-free movement propaganda” had been introduced to the lower house of parliament on Tuesday.
Volodin revealed that the bill would introduce fines of up to 400,000 rubles (€4,000) for individuals, up to 800,000 rubles (€8,000) for public officials, and up to 5 million rubles (€50,000) for legal entities found guilty of spreading so-called “child-free propaganda”, otherwise known as urging people not to have children.
Describing the bill’s objective as stopping “the spread of information promoting childlessness” and stressing that a “big family is the basis of any strong state”, Volodin noted that “disrespect” towards parenthood, as well as “aggression towards pregnant women and children” was a frequent occurrence on social media.
State news agency TASS reported on Tuesday that according to the bill, foreign citizens engaging in “child-free propaganda” could be deported from Russia, though the wording of the bill has not yet been published on the State Duma’s website.
Senate Speaker Valentina Matviyenko backed the potential legislation last week when she said in an interview that she thought the “child-free movement” should be “banned by law”.
When asked about the “child-free” ban on Friday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that “raising the birth rate is one of the government’s key priorities … So we must do everything we can to boost the birth rate, and everything that prevents it should, of course, disappear from our lives.”
