Russian law against 'child-free propaganda' clears first hurdle in parliament

By Mark Trevelyan

LONDON (Reuters) -Laws that would ban "propaganda" which discourages Russians from having children won overwhelming approval on Thursday in the first stage of their passage through parliament, part of a Kremlin drive to boost the country's flagging birth rate.

The move to outlaw content that is deemed to promote a child-free lifestyle won unanimous backing from members of the lower house, the Duma, in the first of three required readings.

"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," said Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, a powerful ally of President Vladimir Putin.

"We continue to form a unified legal framework for the protection of children, families, and traditional values."

Putin, who portrays Russia as a bastion of moral values locked in an existential struggle with a decadent West, has encouraged women to have at least three children to secure the demographic future of the country.

But critics of the new law see it as an alarming development.

"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," said Olga Suvorova, a rights activist who works with victims of domestic violence in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.

"The message is clear: give birth, and that's it," she said in a telephone interview, adding that she feared the bill could pave the way for further encroachments on women's rights including the ability to get an abortion.

BLEAK DEMOGRAPHICS

The demographic challenge has taken on greater urgency for the authorities after official data released last month showed that Russia's birth rate had slid to its lowest in a quarter of a century.

Meanwhile mortality rates are up, with no end in sight to Moscow's war in Ukraine. Official casualty numbers are secret, but a joint project by the BBC Russian service and independent news service Mediazona says it has confirmed the deaths of at least 72,899 Russian soldiers as of Oct. 10.

Deputy Duma speaker Anna Kuznetsova said earlier this month that the law was part of Russia's "national security strategy".

Authors of content that falls foul of the law will be subject to fines: up to 400,000 roubles ($4,125) for individuals, twice that amount for officials, and up to 5 million roubles ($51,550) for legal entities.

Volodin said the law is not about criminalising women who decide not to become mothers.

"The decision to have children or not is up to the woman.

Who she wants to consult about this is, again, up to her," he wrote on Telegram. "But there should be no propaganda that puts pressure on a woman when she takes a decision about having a child."

(Reporting by Mark TrevelyanEditing by Alexandra Hudson)