>(Reuters) – The Russian parliament is working on a law that would ban what the authorities cast as the harmful promotion of a child-free way of life with heavy fines for “childlessness propaganda”, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.
>Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, said parliamentarians had begun to examine legislation to outlaw what he described as propaganda on the internet, in films, in advertising and in the media that encourages “a conscious refusal to have children”.
>Putin, who has cast Russia as a bastion of “traditional values” locked in an existential struggle with a decadent West, has encouraged women to have at least three children, saying that will help secure the future of Russians.
>The issue has taken on greater urgency for the authorities after official data released this month showed that Russia’s birth rate had slid to its lowest in a quarter of a century while mortality rates are up, with no end in sight to Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
>Volodin accused what authorities have described as the “child-free movement” of devaluing the institution of family with an ideology which state officials fret is putting some women off having children.
>“Groups and communities on social networks often show disrespect for motherhood and fatherhood and aggression towards pregnant women and children, as well as members of large families,” said Volodin.
>“A friendly and large family is the basis of a strong state.”
>Volodin said the draft legislation envisaged fines of up to 400,000 roubles ($4,300) for individuals found guilty of “child-free” propaganda, 800,000-rouble ($8,602) fines for state officials, and fines of up to 5 million roubles ($53,763) for companies.
>__Mixed Response__
>The announcement on his official Telegram channel was welcomed by many Russians. One commentator, Arsen, called the concept of being child-free “an evil from the West”.
>Some struck a more critical stance.
>“There is no such (child-free) movement,” said Ilya, another commentator. “And in general it’s up to a couple whether or not to have children.”
>Denis, another commentator, said: “Perhaps worthy living conditions can be created and then you don’t need to ban it. There’s no certainty about the future of children.”
>The legislation is modelled on a 2022 law that widened a ban on “LGBT propaganda”, effectively banning any public expression of queer life. Materials advocating people change their gender, a procedure prohibited in Russia, are similarly outlawed.
>When asked last Friday about a potential ban on “child-free” ideology, Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said it was too early to comment, but that Russia needed initiatives to boost the birth rate.
>“Increasing the birth rate is one of the top priorities for the entire government and the entire country,” said Peskov, who in July called the problem “catastrophic”.
>($1 = 93.0000 roubles)
JackC1126 on
Calling it a “birth rate dip” really minimizes how bad the demographic problem is in Russia
supercyberlurker on
Putin: “Hey I need ya’lls kids to get out there and die for my political aspirations. Be a team player. If ya’ll ain’t got kids, then make some. I’m gonna need a lot more to die wastefully for me soon. Think of the children!”
BitingArtist on
In Russia you must breed so you can all die for your country. What a shit hole.
Urbanyeti0 on
Can’t wait for all the Americans to rightly be appalled by this whilst having the Republicans actively wanting to ban anything that would stop you having kids
tubalcaan on
I have the impression that Russia thinks everything is reducible to ideology. As if, if Russians don’t have kids, it is because of some ideology that was implanted by the West. It is really a pathetic state of denial, and it shows that they did not escape the Soviet mindframe, just turned it around.
BaronVonLazercorn on
Because the way to solve problems is to just ban them, instead of being, you know, not shitheads running the country into the toilet.
smurfsundermybed on
Lemme break this down for ya. On the most basic level, making a baby requires tab A to go into slot B. When you send all of the able bodied tab As to go fight in another country, you’re kinda eliminating half of the required components. It presents a challenge.
HotTakes4Free on
China is proof that “stick” approaches to reducing birth rate were effective. We’ve yet to see if “carrot” approaches to increasing birth rate will work. The signs don’t look good.
Still, who in their right mind thinks the state could force people to have more children?! The very idea is a boner-shrinker, for either sex.
Detective_Antonelli on
“Sign me up for that!!” – the GOP
SereneTryptamine on
Fresh meat for the grinder. Blood for the Blood God. Skulls for the Skull Throne.
TruthOrSF on
We all see the connection between this and Republican attacks on childless women?
Jazzlike_Art6586 on
Hitler did the same. This is a very dangerous timeline.
Back then you should “Schenk dem Führer ein Kind” which means that you should give birth as a present for the president
rohobian on
Elon and/or JD chiming in on how great an idea this is in 3.. 2.. 1…
Saggy_G on
He knows these fresh kids can’t fight for like, a decade at least right? Assuming if this is the route they’re headed, child soldiers are up next.
Not_A_Bot_Ur_J_Mad on
Certainly the correct answer is to keep sending every able bodied man into meat wave assaults in a country you’re trying to commit genocide against.
SedesBakelitowy on
Beatings will continue until child rearing improves.
coachhunter2 on
Has he been having more secret chats with Elon?
NyriasNeo on
That is just stupid. You think people will debate “ideology” before deciding to have kids? What morons will think that.
1984Slice on
They plan on using the baby’s as cannon balls
joethesaint on
The obvious solution here is to keep sending men in their teens and twenties to die.
CaptPants on
Kills a generation of young people to fuel his pointless ego/vanity war.
Is confused why the survivors of said generation aren’t eager to provide more bodies for his future wars.
To_Fight_The_Night on
Tends to hurt your birth rate when you send your most fertile demographic to die in war
O0000O0000O on
Putin will be dead and buried within in a decade tops.
TenorHorn on
I’m sure this won’t lead to the mass rape of women. /s
-Average_Joe- on
That’ll fix it Vlad.
Bedhappy on
When you send so many of your own countrymen to the slaughterhouse and need to think strategically about making more humans, maybe it’s time to throw in the towel unless you want child soldiers.
Edit: Your country by square meter is 28 times the size of Ukraine, and you can’t beat that adversary you created? Fucking pathetic. Go inhabit your own fucking land.
wrestlingfan007 on
Freakonomics. The film “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days.” Romania.
That’s what you should google.
WilliG515 on
They’re only a couple steps away from forced insemination. The groupies in the west will look on jealously and preach it to our electorates.
_Figaro on
Studies have shown that the more dystopian the society is, the less children people tend to have. All this does is curb freedom of speech even further. So in reality, this move will likely make Russians have even less children.
99999887890 on
They…they know that’s not even an “ideology”, right?
31 Comments
Article:
>(Reuters) – The Russian parliament is working on a law that would ban what the authorities cast as the harmful promotion of a child-free way of life with heavy fines for “childlessness propaganda”, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.
>Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, said parliamentarians had begun to examine legislation to outlaw what he described as propaganda on the internet, in films, in advertising and in the media that encourages “a conscious refusal to have children”.
>Putin, who has cast Russia as a bastion of “traditional values” locked in an existential struggle with a decadent West, has encouraged women to have at least three children, saying that will help secure the future of Russians.
>The issue has taken on greater urgency for the authorities after official data released this month showed that Russia’s birth rate had slid to its lowest in a quarter of a century while mortality rates are up, with no end in sight to Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
>Volodin accused what authorities have described as the “child-free movement” of devaluing the institution of family with an ideology which state officials fret is putting some women off having children.
>“Groups and communities on social networks often show disrespect for motherhood and fatherhood and aggression towards pregnant women and children, as well as members of large families,” said Volodin.
>“A friendly and large family is the basis of a strong state.”
>Volodin said the draft legislation envisaged fines of up to 400,000 roubles ($4,300) for individuals found guilty of “child-free” propaganda, 800,000-rouble ($8,602) fines for state officials, and fines of up to 5 million roubles ($53,763) for companies.
>__Mixed Response__
>The announcement on his official Telegram channel was welcomed by many Russians. One commentator, Arsen, called the concept of being child-free “an evil from the West”.
>Some struck a more critical stance.
>“There is no such (child-free) movement,” said Ilya, another commentator. “And in general it’s up to a couple whether or not to have children.”
>Denis, another commentator, said: “Perhaps worthy living conditions can be created and then you don’t need to ban it. There’s no certainty about the future of children.”
>The legislation is modelled on a 2022 law that widened a ban on “LGBT propaganda”, effectively banning any public expression of queer life. Materials advocating people change their gender, a procedure prohibited in Russia, are similarly outlawed.
>When asked last Friday about a potential ban on “child-free” ideology, Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said it was too early to comment, but that Russia needed initiatives to boost the birth rate.
>“Increasing the birth rate is one of the top priorities for the entire government and the entire country,” said Peskov, who in July called the problem “catastrophic”.
>($1 = 93.0000 roubles)
Calling it a “birth rate dip” really minimizes how bad the demographic problem is in Russia
Putin: “Hey I need ya’lls kids to get out there and die for my political aspirations. Be a team player. If ya’ll ain’t got kids, then make some. I’m gonna need a lot more to die wastefully for me soon. Think of the children!”
In Russia you must breed so you can all die for your country. What a shit hole.
Can’t wait for all the Americans to rightly be appalled by this whilst having the Republicans actively wanting to ban anything that would stop you having kids
I have the impression that Russia thinks everything is reducible to ideology. As if, if Russians don’t have kids, it is because of some ideology that was implanted by the West. It is really a pathetic state of denial, and it shows that they did not escape the Soviet mindframe, just turned it around.
Because the way to solve problems is to just ban them, instead of being, you know, not shitheads running the country into the toilet.
Lemme break this down for ya. On the most basic level, making a baby requires tab A to go into slot B. When you send all of the able bodied tab As to go fight in another country, you’re kinda eliminating half of the required components. It presents a challenge.
China is proof that “stick” approaches to reducing birth rate were effective. We’ve yet to see if “carrot” approaches to increasing birth rate will work. The signs don’t look good.
Still, who in their right mind thinks the state could force people to have more children?! The very idea is a boner-shrinker, for either sex.
“Sign me up for that!!” – the GOP
Fresh meat for the grinder. Blood for the Blood God. Skulls for the Skull Throne.
We all see the connection between this and Republican attacks on childless women?
Hitler did the same. This is a very dangerous timeline.
Back then you should “Schenk dem Führer ein Kind” which means that you should give birth as a present for the president
Elon and/or JD chiming in on how great an idea this is in 3.. 2.. 1…
He knows these fresh kids can’t fight for like, a decade at least right? Assuming if this is the route they’re headed, child soldiers are up next.
Certainly the correct answer is to keep sending every able bodied man into meat wave assaults in a country you’re trying to commit genocide against.
Beatings will continue until child rearing improves.
Has he been having more secret chats with Elon?
That is just stupid. You think people will debate “ideology” before deciding to have kids? What morons will think that.
They plan on using the baby’s as cannon balls
The obvious solution here is to keep sending men in their teens and twenties to die.
Kills a generation of young people to fuel his pointless ego/vanity war.
Is confused why the survivors of said generation aren’t eager to provide more bodies for his future wars.
Tends to hurt your birth rate when you send your most fertile demographic to die in war
Putin will be dead and buried within in a decade tops.
I’m sure this won’t lead to the mass rape of women. /s
That’ll fix it Vlad.
When you send so many of your own countrymen to the slaughterhouse and need to think strategically about making more humans, maybe it’s time to throw in the towel unless you want child soldiers.
Edit: Your country by square meter is 28 times the size of Ukraine, and you can’t beat that adversary you created? Fucking pathetic. Go inhabit your own fucking land.
Freakonomics. The film “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days.” Romania.
That’s what you should google.
They’re only a couple steps away from forced insemination. The groupies in the west will look on jealously and preach it to our electorates.
Studies have shown that the more dystopian the society is, the less children people tend to have. All this does is curb freedom of speech even further. So in reality, this move will likely make Russians have even less children.
They…they know that’s not even an “ideology”, right?