The Russian government supported the introduction of fines for “childfree propaganda”
The Russian government has approved a draft law that provides punishment for spreading information about “propaganda for refusing to give birth to children”, similar to the laws prohibiting “LGBT propaganda”. This is reported by the Russian mass media.
According to the document, Russians face a fine of up to 100,000 rubles for spreading neutral or positive information about a childfree lifestyle (childfree). Fines of up to 1 million rubles and possible suspension of activity for up to three months are provided for legal entities.
The author of the draft law, State Duma deputy from the United Russia party, Elvira Aitkulova, stated that this initiative is aimed at protecting and strengthening traditional values and creating an effective mechanism for their preservation. According to Aitkulova, the spread of childfree ideas contradicts the interests of Russian society and endangers the country’s demographic security.
The head of the Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko, also expressed her support for this initiative, who previously repeatedly advocated for strengthening control over information that affects public morals and family values. At the same time, the spokesman of the President of Russia, Dmytro Peskov, noted that the Kremlin does not yet have a clear position on the draft law, but supports the idea of eliminating everything that hinders the increase in the birth rate.
This draft law became part of the general trend of strengthening restrictions on the dissemination of information that does not correspond to officially defined “traditional values”. Thus, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recently recognized the “International LGBT Public Movement” as an extremist organization, despite the fact that human rights activists claim that such a structure does not exist. The court satisfied the lawsuit of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, which did not provide any specific details regarding the organization, its management or structure in its appeal.
