With 36,000 women assaulted by their partners every day in Russia, politician behind ‘gay propaganda’ ban proposes legalising abuse. The Moscow Times reports

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Tatyana’s stepfather started small.

At first, he’d get annoyed by things she did. He criticised and lectured her. Soon the lectures stopped and the outrage began. And when the outrage stopped, the hitting started.

“He just went mad,” said Tatyana, whose name has been changed to protect her identity. “For five years, he beat me and my mother senseless.”

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Tatyana’s story is far from unique. Every year, tens of thousands of Russian women and children experience violence in their families – assault, rape, even attempted murder. Years after escaping with her mother, Tatyana, now 29, says domestic abuse must be tackled and punished before it gets out of control.

But not everyone agrees with her.

Ultra-conservative Russian MP Yelena Mizulina, best known for successfully introducing for the law banning so-called gay propaganda, introduced a new bill to the State Duma in July proposing the decriminalisation of violence within families.

“Battery carried out toward family members should be an administrative offence,” said Mizulina, who is chair of the Duma committee on family, women and children’s affairs and is now a senator in the Federation Council, Russia’s upper chamber of parliament. “You don’t want people to be imprisoned for two years and labelled a criminal for the rest of their lives for a slap.”

Yet according to official Russian government statistics, 40% of all violent crimes are committed within the family. This amounts to 36,000 women being assaulted by their partners every day and 26,000 children being beaten by their parents every year.

Larisa Ponarina, deputy director of the Anna Center, an NGO helping victims of domestic violence, suggests that more than 14,000 women die every year as a result of domestic abuse.

Family values

Mizulina’s bill comes after a recent amendment to the criminal code, introduced by the Supreme Court and signed into law by Vladimir Putin, which declares family violence a criminal offence to be investigated and prosecuted by the state, on an equal footing with hooliganism and hate crimes. This change came into force in early July.

Mizulina, backed by traditional family values campaigners, is attempting to undo the amendment. The Russian Orthodox Church issued a statement saying that “if reasonable and carried out with love, corporal punishment is an essential right given to parents by God”.

The conservative All-Russian Parents’ Resistance has warned that criminalisation of familial violence will lead to prosecution of parents who were acting in their children’s best interests.

All attempts to pass a domestic violence law in the past 10 years have been unsuccessful

“A mother spanked her son for watching porn ... but his teachers in school noticed bruises, complained, and the court made the mother pay a 8,000-rouble [$120] fine ... Parents no longer have the right to choose methods of up-bringing,” a statement on their website says.

Alyona Popova, an activist and women’s rights advocate, criticised the statements. “Traditional, or rather archaic values have become popular again,” she said.

“Society tells women to get married in order to let their husbands decide things for them. If a man beats you, it is because he is stronger and has the right to beat you, and you should consider yourself lucky to be married in the first place.”

The UN has criticised Russia’s record on women’s rights, recommending the adoption of new legislation on domestic violence, the establishment of shelters and other support for women victims of violence.

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But campaigners say that the new criminal code amendment does not go far enough. One of the few countries still to adopt a specific domestic violence law, Russia hasn’t signed or ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence which came into force in August 2014.

All attempts to pass a domestic violence law in the past 10 years have been unsuccessful. The most recent bill, drafted by human rights advocates and specialised NGOs, is now ready for the first reading.

A version of this article first appeared on The Moscow Times