cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/3235819
Openly defending one’s decision not to have children will be prosecuted in Russia. The State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, is preparing a bill under which authorities will impose fines of up to €50,000 ($55,580) for supporting “the refusal to have children.” The measure affects all areas of life — from casual conversation to films and books — and is a serious threat to the Russian feminist movement.
The crackdown on what the Kremlin calls the “childfree” movement will result in fines of up to 400,000 rubles for individuals (around $4,300), 800,000 rubles for civil servants ($8,600), and up to five million rubles ($55,580) for companies or other legal entities. Foreigners will also be deported.
There are thousands of reasons why a person may decide not to have children, but the Cabinet of ministers has asked the State Duma to make only three exceptions to the law: religious reasons, medical reasons or in the case of rape. It also alleges that there is a mass-organized childfree movement, even though the websites on this subject are little more than a curiosity; Russian newspapers cite the existence of groups on VKontakte, the Russian Facebook, which barely have 5,000 members.
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Some important info that is missing:
Proposed legislation is far from being an actual law. It has only once passed the committee (1st stage out of 5), after which got sent to be re-written. Now it’s at pre-1st stage.
So far, it has received 2 negative reviews from the administration. First one, from 2022, said it’s redundant, and second one, from 2023 that it’s… still just as redundant as it was.
2 out of 3 authors have removed their signatures since the first negative review.
Basically, there’s little to no chance this would ever pass. Our “crazy printer” may be insane, but it only does so if there is an ass to lick.
I could even link everything if anybody wants me to. Doubt it won’t get removed, but still.