Ivan and Nadezhda Osyaki are proud holders of the Order for Parental Glory, in recognition of the service they have done Russia in producing 18 mini-Osyakis over the last 33 years and bringing them all up in the tradition of the Russian Orthodox church, of which Ivan is a priest. They live in a large, beautiful house with all mod cons, largely paid for by charitable donations from billionaires eager to associate themselves with these beacons of virtue graced by God and, more importantly, Putin, whose expansionist policy has itself expanded to include wombs. No point grabbing land if you have no acolytes to put on it.

In last night’s Unreported World: Putin’s Family Values (Channel 4), Marcel Theroux travelled to that confounding land to tease out, with his and the series’ customary efficiency, what the resurgence of the church, after years of suppression and persecution under communism, means for the country. The answer appears to be nothing good. Unless, of course, you are an Osyaki. Which, at the rate they’re going, the odds are you might be.

Marching in lockstep with the encouragement and celebration of fertility is the denigration of that which is perceived to constrain it. Women’s rights are under attack. Theroux attends a protest (a rare event in itself in Putin’s Russia) against a proposed bill to decriminalise domestic violence. “Never allow the state to interfere with family values,” says Konstantin Maleeov, a banker with Kremlin connections and the owner of Russia’s first Christian TV station, who lobbied for the bill. Which was passed. Now it’s only 5,000 roubles (£70) if you are found guilty of beating your wife, 7,000 if you’re found guilty of beating your children. It’s the way God wants it.

Adoptions of children to countries that have legalised gay marriage have also been banned, which is why a woman called Tatyana has adopted 48 children and is currently fostering another 28. They include six-year-old Kostya, abandoned on the street by his parents, and five-year-old Kolya, whose adoptive parents kept his three siblings but returned him to what passes for Russia’s care system because of his tantrums. This too, I presume, is how God wants it.