Five million rubles. That is the top fine under a law Vladimir Putin signed on Saturday, November 23, 2024, against organizations that spread what the law calls “propaganda against childbearing.” Individuals face up to 400,000 rubles, and officials up to 800,000 rubles.
The same day the Russian president approved a second measure that shuts the door on foreign adoption. Citizens of countries where gender transition is legal may no longer adopt Russian children. Both houses of parliament had already passed the bills.
Who is covered
The Associated Press counted at least 15 countries affected, most of them in Europe, along with Australia, Argentina and Canada. Americans were already shut out, since Russia banned adoptions by U.S. citizens in 2012. Lawmakers themselves said the change in the Family Code effectively bars citizens of NATO countries, because most of them allow gender transition by law.
State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, one of the bill’s authors, wrote on Telegram in July that it was “extremely important to eliminate possible dangers in the form of gender reassignment that adopted children may face in these countries.”
The childfree provision
The second law targets public arguments for not having children. It bans such material in films, advertising, the media and online platforms. Promotion of monasticism is exempt. Backers claim that public cases against parenthood are a Western ploy to shrink Russia’s population and sap its strength.
Russia’s population is shrinking, and Putin has spent years talking up large families, and a year earlier he urged women to bear up to eight.
A run of restrictions
The laws follow a string of measures aimed at sexual minorities. A 2022 law from Putin forbade sharing LGBTQ+ information with anyone, whatever their age; a 2013 ban had covered only minors. A year before this one, Russia prohibited medical gender transition, and the Supreme Court labeled the LGBTQ+ “movement” extremist, which in effect outlawed activism. Rights groups and media now describe the first known cases of people being punished under that ruling.
Putin and other senior officials have increasingly pushed what they call traditional values as a counterweight to Western liberalism. Hundreds of groups and individuals in Russia have been labeled “foreign agents,” a designation that brings added government scrutiny.
Sources
- Putin bans adoption of Russian children to countries that allow gender transition
- Putin bans 'childfree propaganda' and adoption of Russian children by citizens of countries that recognize gender transition
Sources
- Russia bans adoption of its children from countries that …
- Putin bans adoption of Russian kids to countries allowing gender…
