12:19, 20 September 2024

The Kremlin has not decided on the issue of banning the “childfree movement” in Russia, but believes that everything that does not contribute to increasing the birth rate “should disappear from our lives.” This was stated at a briefing by the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov.

“The demographic problem is one of the main challenges that we face. Of course, increasing the birth rate is one of the main priorities in the work of the entire government and the entire country. Everything that needs to be done to increase the birth rate must, of course, be done. And everything that hinders this must disappear from our lives,” Mayak quotes him as saying.

On September 18, the Izvestia newspaper published  an interview with Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko, in which she stated that she advocates a legislative ban on the “childfree movement.” She spoke about this in the context of feminism in the West “degenerating, radicalizing,” and becoming “militant.”

In September 2022, a bill was introduced to the State Duma to ban the dissemination of “information promoting voluntary refusal to have children” among minors. The explanatory note to the document stated that “supporters of the childfree ideology disseminate ideas that form the basis of destructive social behavior based on voluntary refusal to have children, which runs counter to traditional family values ​​and the state policy of the Russian Federation.” In March 2023, the document was withdrawn from consideration.

(C)MEDUZA 2024