A law that would ban “propaganda” seeking to champion a childfree lifestyle has cleared its first hurdle in Russia’s lower house of parliament, gaining unanimous approval among lawmakers for a bill promoted as a means to increase the country’s birthrate.
The new legislation sets out fines for those deemed to be discouraging people from having children, as official data released last month suggested Russia’s birthrate had slid to its lowest level in a quarter of a century, a slump exacerbated by the country’s ageing population and Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Individuals could be fined up to 400,000 rubles (about £3,000), while the figure rises to 5m rubles for businesses or entities. Foreign nationals who create content advocating childlessness could be deported.
Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Duma, said: “It is important to protect people, primarily the younger generation, from having the ideology of childlessness imposed on them on the internet, in the media, in movies and in advertising.”
Volodin, a powerful ally of Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, cast the bill as part of a “unified legal framework” that seeks to protect children, families and traditional values.
Proponents of the legislation described it as a matter of national security, claiming that the arguments against having children are part of a broader effort by the west to weaken Russia by encouraging population decline.
“It’s an element of professional propaganda, part of a hybrid war aimed at population reduction,” said Elvira Aitkulova, one of the bill’s authors. “This is a strategic bill for the sake of a strong, productive and healthy future.”
The legislation comes as Putin and his top officials seek to portray Russia as a bastion of “traditional values” and a bulwark against western liberal ideas. Last year Putin called on women to have as many as eight children to secure the demographic future of the country.
Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, who has described the low birthrate as “catastrophic”, said last month that halting the decline ranked among the “top priorities for the entire government and the entire country”.
This week’s legislation caused concerns among rights campaigners, who predicted it could set the stage for women’s rights to be further eroded.
“The message is clear: give birth, and that’s it,” Olga Suvorova, a rights activist who works with victims of domestic violence in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, told Reuters. “Women are being essentially turned into vessels for bearing children, not taking into account their circumstances, their motivations and whether they aspire to have a career or a family.”
Volodin insisted the law would not criminalise women who choose not to have children. “The decision to have children or not is up to the woman,” he wrote on Telegram.
Women were also free to consult whoever they wanted on this matter, he added. “But there should be no propaganda pressuring a woman in her decision to have children. That’s what is happening now in the US and Europe,” he claimed.
The bill remains in the early stages, with two more readings required in the Duma. If approved, it will be sent to the upper house for vetting and then to Putin for final approval.
The legislation marks an expansion of Russia’s recent efforts to curb public discourse in favour of what it describes as “traditional values”. In 2022, the country’s parliament passed a law criminalising any act deemed to promote what it called “non-traditional sexual relations”, leading LGBTQ+ activists to say that public mentions of same-sex relationships were now essentially outlawed in the country.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report
